Court Opinion

ID: 9366992
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-30 16:01:22.935305+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:55.790514
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-2256     Document: 12    Page: 1   Filed: 01/30/2023

           NOTE: This order is nonprecedential.

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                   ______________________

                SHIBUYA KOGYO CO., LTD.,
                        Appellant

                             v.

                 STEUBEN FOODS, INC.,
                         Appellee
                  ______________________

                         2022-2256
                   ______________________

     Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark
 Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. 95/000,686.
                   ______________________

                       ON MOTION
                   ______________________

    Before TARANTO, MAYER, and STOLL, Circuit Judges.
 TARANTO, Circuit Judge.
                        ORDER
     Steuben Foods, Inc. moves to dismiss this appeal for
 lack of standing. Shibuya Kogyo Co., Ltd. opposes.
     Shibuya appeals from the Patent Trial and Appeal
 Board’s final decision in this inter partes reexamination,
 which related to claims 9 and 20–23 of Steuben’s U.S. Pa-
 tent No. 6,481,468. Shibuya has no constitutional standing
Case: 22-2256     Document: 12     Page: 2      Filed: 01/30/2023

 2              SHIBUYA KOGYO CO., LTD.   v. STEUBEN FOODS, INC.

 to challenge the Board’s decision reversing the examiner’s
 rejection of those patent claims because the United States
 Patent and Trademark Office, in separate proceedings, is-
 sued a final certificate cancelling those same claims before
 this appeal was filed. See Best Med. Int’l, Inc. v. Elekta
 Inc., 46 F.4th 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2022) (holding patentee
 lacked standing to appeal Board’s decision when the chal-
 lenged claim was finally canceled prior to appeal).
      Shibuya argues that it is injured by the Board’s claim
 construction, which it contends is likely to govern pending
 litigation in which related patents are asserted against it.
 But we have previously rejected attempts to establish
 standing based solely on concerns that a district court may
 later rely on the Board’s claim construction. See id. at 1353
 (noting that non-appealable issues and judgments typically
 lack preclusive effect). For example, in SkyHawke Tech-
 nologies, LLC v. Deca International Corp., 828 F.3d 1373
 (Fed. Cir. 2016), we explained that a party would “be able
 to appeal any such unfavorable claim construction by the
 district court should that situation arise,” and we could not
 “foresee how the claim construction reached by the Board”
 could satisfy the elements for any future application of is-
 sue preclusion. Id. at 1376.
     We see no basis for a disposition different from the one
 in Best Medical and SkyHawke: dismissal of the appeal.
 Shibuya has not shown that the Board’s claim construction
 will necessarily govern district court proceedings or that it
 will be without the ability to challenge a construction on
 appeal in those proceedings. Nor has Shibuya shown that
 vacatur is appropriate under United States v. Mun-
 singwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36 (1950), because, as in Best Med-
 ical, “this appeal did not become moot during the pendency
 of the appeal,” 46 F.4th at 1351; instead, Shibuya’s “prob-
 lem is lack of standing at the outset of the appeal,” Apple
 Inc. v. Qualcomm Inc., 17 F.4th 1131, 1137 (Fed. Cir. 2021).
     Accordingly,
Case: 22-2256    Document: 12       Page: 3    Filed: 01/30/2023

 SHIBUYA KOGYO CO., LTD.   v. STEUBEN FOODS, INC.            3

    IT IS ORDERED THAT:
    (1) The motion is granted. The appeal is dismissed.
    (2) Each side shall bear its own costs.
                                      FOR THE COURT

 January 30, 2023                     /s/ Peter R. Marksteiner
      Date                            Peter R. Marksteiner
                                      Clerk of Court
 ISSUED AS A MANDATE: January 30, 2023