Court Opinion

ID: 9839027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-11 15:00:57.478983+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:37.596642
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-1350    Document: 42    Page: 1   Filed: 09/11/2023

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                  ______________________

                      APPLE INC.,
                       Appellant

                            v.

                COREPHOTONICS, LTD.,
                        Appellee
                 ______________________

                   2022-1350, 2022-1351
                  ______________________

     Appeals from the United States Patent and Trademark
 Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Nos. IPR2020-
 00905, IPR2020-00906.
                  ______________________

                Decided: September 11, 2023
                  ______________________

     ELIZABETH MOULTON, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
 LLP, San Francisco, CA, argued for appellant. Also repre-
 sented by ALYSSA BARNARD-YANNI, EMILY VILLANO, New
 York, NY; MARK S. DAVIES, Washington, DC.

    MARC A. FENSTER, Russ August & Kabat, Los Angeles,
 CA, argued for appellee. Also represented by BRIAN DAVID
 LEDAHL, NEIL RUBIN, JAMES S. TSUEI.
                  ______________________

      Before STOLL, LINN, and STARK, Circuit Judges.
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 2                          APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 STOLL, Circuit Judge.
     Apple Inc. appeals two final written decisions of the Pa-
 tent Trial and Appeal Board determining that Apple had
 not shown the challenged claims of Corephotonics, Ltd.’s
 U.S. Patent No. 10,225,479 were unpatentable as obvious.
 Because the intrinsic evidence supports a different con-
 struction than that adopted by the Board in its first deci-
 sion, and because the Board based its second decision on a
 ground not raised by any party in violation of the Adminis-
 trative Procedure Act (APA), we vacate and remand both
 final written decisions.
                         BACKGROUND
      Corephotonics owns the ’479 patent, which is directed
 to creating “portrait photos.” ’479 patent col. 15 ll. 29–30.
 Specifically, the patent discloses “a thin (e.g., fitting in a
 cell phone) dual-aperture zoom digital camera” that com-
 bines images taken by a wide lens and a tele lens to create
 a fused still image. Id. at col. 3 ll. 18–23. The patent’s
 specification explains that the resulting fused image shows
 the “objects behind the subject [as] . . . very blurry.” Id.
 at col. 4 ll. 30–34. The patent describes that the fused im-
 age is created by incorporating “information from the out-
 of-focus blurred background in the Wide image” with “the
 original Tele image,” ultimately providing “a blurrier back-
 ground and even shallower” depth-of-field than the original
 tele image. Id. at col. 4 ll. 34–38, col. 9 ll. 58–60.
     Representative claim 1 reads as follows:
     1. A dual-aperture digital camera . . ., comprising:
         a) a Wide camera comprising a Wide lens
         and a Wide image sensor, the Wide camera
         having a respective field of view FOVW and
         being operative to provide a Wide image of
         the object or scene;
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         b) a Tele camera comprising a Tele lens
         and a Tele image sensor, the Tele camera
         having a respective field of view FOVT nar-
         rower than FOVW and being operative to
         provide a Tele image of the object or scene
         . . .;
         ...
         e) a camera controller operatively coupled
         to the . . . Wide and Tele image sensors and
         configured to control the [autofocus] mech-
         anisms and to process the Wide and Tele
         images to create a fused image,
         wherein areas in the Tele image that are
         not focused are not combined with the Wide
         image to create the fused image and
         wherein the camera controller is further op-
         erative to output the fused image with a
         point of view (POV) of the Wide camera by
         mapping Tele image pixels to matching pix-
         els within the Wide image.
 Id. at col. 13 ll. 22–50 (emphasis added to disputed por-
 tion).
     Apple filed two petitions for inter partes review, each
 challenging various claims of the ’479 patent as obvious in
 view of multiple prior art references, including (as relevant
 on appeal) Parulski. 1 Parulski discloses a “digital camera
 that uses multiple lenses and image sensors to provide an
 improved imaging capability.” Parulski col. 1 ll. 8–10. The
 Board issued a final written decision in both proceedings
 finding that Apple had not met its burden to show that the
 challenged claims were unpatentable. Apple, Inc. v. Core-
 photonics Ltd., No. IPR2020-00905, Paper 51, at 23

     1   U.S. Patent No. 7,859,588.
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 4                         APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 (P.T.A.B. Nov. 8, 2021) (’905 IPR Decision); Apple, Inc.
 v. Corephotonics Ltd., No. IPR2020-00906, Paper 54, at 14
 (P.T.A.B. Nov. 8, 2021) (’906 IPR Decision).
                              I
     In the first proceeding, the parties disputed the con-
 struction of the claim term requiring a “fused image with a
 point of view (POV) of the Wide camera.” Specifically, the
 parties disputed what “a point of view (POV) of the Wide
 camera” requires. Both parties cited intrinsic evidence to
 support their arguments. Apple contended that, in view of
 the specification’s disclosure, the disputed claim term re-
 quired only that the fused image retain Wide perspective
 or Wide position POV, i.e., retain the shape of the Wide im-
 age (perspective POV) or the position of the Wide image
 (position POV). Corephotonics argued that the specifica-
 tion defined “point of view” such that the disputed limita-
 tion meant that the fused image must maintain both Wide
 perspective and Wide position POV.
      The Board described the specification’s disclosure re-
 garding this term as “not a model of clarity,” ’905 IPR De-
 cision at 11, but ultimately agreed with Corephotonics that
 “the [s]pecification equates a camera’s POV with how an
 object will appear in that camera’s image plane,” which in-
 cludes both the position and perspective points of view of
 an object. Id. Based on this construction, the Board found
 that Parulski only disclosed maintaining Wide position
 POV and therefore did not maintain “a point of view (POV)
 of the Wide camera” as construed. Id. at 21. Accordingly,
 the Board concluded that Parulski did not disclose this
 claim limitation and thus that Apple had not shown that
 the challenged claims were unpatentable.
                              II
     In the second proceeding, Apple challenged claims 19–
 22 of the ’479 patent, which included many limitations re-
 lating to certain camera parameters, like track length,
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 focal length, and pixel size, among others. Independent
 claim 19 recites:
    19. A dual-aperture digital camera for imaging an
    object or scene, comprising:
        a) a Wide camera comprising a Wide lens
        and a Wide image sensor, the Wide camera
        having a respective field of view FOVW and
        being operative to provide a Wide image of
        the object or scene;
        b) a Tele camera comprising a Tele lens
        and a Tele image sensor, the Tele camera
        having a respective field of view FOVT nar-
        rower than FOVW and being operative to
        provide a Tele image of the object or scene,
        wherein the Tele lens has a respective ef-
        fective focal length EFLT and total track
        length TTLT fulfilling the condition
        EFLT/TTLT>1;
        c) a first autofocus (AF) mechanism cou-
        pled mechanically to, and used to perform
        an AF action on the Wide lens;
        d) a second AF mechanism coupled me-
        chanically to, and used to perform an AF
        action on the Tele lens, wherein the Wide
        and Tele lenses have different F numbers
        F#Wide and F#Tele, wherein the Wide and
        Tele image sensors have pixels with respec-
        tive pixel sizes Pixel sizeWide and Pixel
        sizeTele wherein Pixel sizeWide is not equal
        to Pixel sizeTele, and wherein the Tele cam-
        era has a Tele camera depth of field (DOFT)
        shallower than a DOF of the Wide camera
        (DOFW); and
        e) a camera controller operatively coupled
        to the first and second AF mechanisms and
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 6                           APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

         to the Wide and Tele image sensors and
         configured to control the AF mechanisms,
         to process the Wide and Tele images to find
         translations between matching points in
         the images to calculate depth information
         and to create a fused image suited for por-
         trait photos, the fused image having a DOF
         shallower than DOFT and having a blurred
         background.
 ’479 patent col. 14 l. 66–col. 15 l. 33.
      Apple contended that a combination of Parulski and
 Ogata 2 (and other references not relevant on appeal) would
 render these claims obvious. Ogata discloses a “wide-angle
 photographic lens system,” and includes multiple charts
 listing specific data of the lens components of its preferred
 embodiments. Ogata col. 7 l. 29–col. 11 l. 59. Apple pro-
 posed in its petition that the skilled artisan would combine
 Parulski—which discloses a dual-aperture lens system
 without specifics about its lens parameters—with Ogata—
 which discloses specific data about lens parameters. Alt-
 hough Parulski and Ogata disclose differently sized lenses,
 Apple argued that the skilled artisan would have scaled the
 lens of Ogata down by a factor of about 6 to meet the size
 disclosed by Parulski. And if the artisan did so, the result-
 ing scaled lens would purportedly have the characteristics
 required by claims 19–22.
     Corephotonics’ Patent Owner Response pointed out an
 alleged problem with Apple’s theory. Apple relied on the
 declaration of its expert Dr. Sasián—and he made a typo-
 graphical error in his declaration. Specifically, Dr. Sasián
 used a program called Zemax to calculate the resulting lens
 characteristics for Ogata’s lens were it scaled down as Ap-
 ple suggested in its petition. But when he entered the lens

     2   U.S. Patent No. 5,546,236.
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 data into Zemax, Dr. Sasián inadvertently entered the
 wrong Abbe number 3 for the third lens element. ’906 IPR
 Decision at 15 (identifying that Dr. Sasián entered the
 Abbe number as 26.5, instead of 42.72 as disclosed by
 Ogata); also compare J.A. 2733, Fig. 3C (Dr. Sasián’s “Pre-
 scription Data” spreadsheet listing Abbe number for third
 lens element as 26.5), with Ogata col. 7 ll. 45 (listing same
 Abbe number (v3) as 42.72).
      Corephotonics briefly noted—in the Background sec-
 tion of its Patent Owner Response—that, “[b]ecause of this
 error, Dr. Sasián’s field curvature, distortion and OPD fan
 plots . . . do not accurately reflect the performance of a
 scaled version of Ogata’s” lens. Apple, Inc. v. Corephotonics
 Ltd., No. IPR2020-00906, Paper 15, at 31 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 4,
 2021). Corephotonics did not mention this error again. It
 did not, for example, mention this typographical error at
 any point in its argument regarding obviousness or allege
 that this error altered whether the prior art combination
 discloses any of the claimed lens parameters. See generally
 id. at 36–68. Instead, Corephotonics used the remainder of
 its Response to argue that the proposed scaling of Ogata
 would create a “miniature” lens that would “dramatically
 alter the practicality of manufacturing the design” and
 would also impact “performance characteristics.” Id. at 41;
 see also J.A. 4803 (Corephotonics’ expert Dr. Moore opining
 that the proposed combination would not work because
 “scaling a good conventional lens design to a smaller size
 will often produce a design that is substantially inferior”).
 In its Reply, Apple did not respond to Corephotonics’ brief
 mention of Dr. Sasián’s typographical error. Instead, Ap-
 ple argued that scaling Ogata’s lens down by the proposed
 factor would not cause issues with manufacturing or per-
 formance, distinguishing Corephotonics’ arguments by

     3  An Abbe number of a transparent material is an
 approximate measure of the material’s dispersion.
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 8                          APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 noting that the proposed lens would not be “miniature” at
 all. Apple, Inc. v. Corephotonics Ltd., No. IPR2020-00906,
 Paper 23, at 6–7 (P.T.A.B. May 7, 2021).
     The Board then issued its final written decision, which
 focused not on the manufacturing and scalability argu-
 ments raised by the parties but instead on Dr. Sasián’s ty-
 pographical error.        ’906 IPR Decision at 13–17.
 Specifically, the Board found there were “[a] few inconsist-
 encies between” Ogata and the data in Dr. Sasián’s decla-
 ration. Id. at 15. Besides the error mentioned by
 Corephotonics, the Board also purported to identify addi-
 tional errors in Dr. Sasián’s declaration regarding “the
 data for the fourth and tenth aspherical surfaces.” Id. Be-
 cause of these errors—both the Abbe number error identi-
 fied by Corephotonics and additional errors identified for
 the first time by the Board in its decision—the Board found
 that Apple had not met its burden to show that the chal-
 lenged claims were unpatentable. Id. at 17 (“[T]he opinion
 of a person skilled in the art will be only as reliable as the
 lens design software analysis that person performed, which
 will be only as reliable as the data used to perform that
 analysis.”).
    Apple appeals from both final written decisions. We
 have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(4)(A).
                         DISCUSSION
      On appeal, Apple argues that the Board improperly
 construed the claim term “fused image with a point of view
 of the Wide camera” in its final written decision in the first
 IPR and that the Board’s conclusion regarding Dr. Sasián’s
 declaration in the second IPR was a new argument raised
 without notice to Apple in violation of the APA. We address
 the issues in each proceeding in turn.
                               I
     We turn first to Apple’s claim construction argument
 regarding the first IPR. This case presents a close issue of
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 claim construction. The question is whether the contested
 claim term requiring the fused image to have “a point of
 view of the Wide camera” means that the fused image must
 maintain only Wide position POV or Wide perspective POV
 (as Apple contends) or whether it means that the fused im-
 age must maintain both (as Corephotonics contends and
 the Board found). The parties and the Board each cite only
 the patent’s intrinsic evidence, making this a question of
 law that we review de novo. Intel Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc.,
 21 F.4th 801, 808 (Fed. Cir. 2021).
      We begin, as we often do, with the claim language.
 Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1314 (Fed. Cir.
 2005) (“[T]he context in which a term is used in the as-
 serted claim can be highly instructive.”). Here, the claim
 term at issue reads in context: “wherein the camera con-
 troller is further operative to output the fused image with
 a point of view (POV) of the Wide camera by mapping Tele
 image pixels to matching pixels within the Wide image.”
 ’479 patent col. 13 ll. 46–50. The claim does not mention
 position or perspective; instead, the claim states only that
 the resulting fused image retains “a point of view (POV) of
 the Wide camera,” without specifying what “point of view”
 it refers to. The claim does refer to “a” point of view instead
 of “the” point of view, which, as discussed below, we find
 informative. The language following the claim term clari-
 fies that the fused image is accomplished by “mapping Tele
 image pixels to matching pixels within the Wide image.”
 But this language does not clearly counsel as to the mean-
 ing of point of view. For example, it does not specify which
 or how many pixels of the Tele image are mapped, leaving
 it unclear whether the resulting image maintains the Wide
 image’s perspective, position, or both.
     As we have observed, however, “[t]he claims . . . do not
 stand alone.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1315. We thus turn to
 the patent’s specification for help. As the Board observed,
 the specification is “not a model of clarity.” ’905 IPR Deci-
 sion at 11. Nevertheless, it provides some useful insight
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 10                          APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 into the claim term’s meaning. Before us, as they did be-
 fore the Board, both parties cite to a portion of the specifi-
 cation describing point of view:
      In a dual-aperture camera image plane, as seen by
      each sub-camera (and respective image sensor), a
      given object will be shifted and have different per-
      spective (shape). This is referred to as point-of-
      view (POV). The system output image can have the
      shape and position of either sub-camera image or
      the shape or position of a combination thereof. If
      the output image retains the Wide image shape
      then it has the Wide perspective POV. If it retains
      the Wide camera position then it has the Wide po-
      sition POV. The same applies to Tele images posi-
      tion and perspective. As used in this description,
      the perspective POV may be of the Wide or Tele
      sub-cameras, while the position POV may shift con-
      tinuously between the Wide and Tele sub-cameras.
      In fused images, it is possible to register Tele image
      pixels to a matching pixel set within the Wide im-
      age pixels, in which case the output image will re-
      tain the Wide POV.
 ’479 patent col. 5 ll. 10–26. This passage begins by explain-
 ing the general concept of “point-of-view (POV),” then ex-
 plains the concepts of “Wide perspective POV” and “Wide
 position POV,” as well as their Tele counterparts.
     The first few sentences of this disclosure appear to con-
 template what the patent means by “point of view.” After
 describing that a given object “will be shifted [(position)]
 and have different perspective (shape),” the patent ex-
 plains that “[t]his is referred to as point-of-view.” Id.
 at col. 5 ll. 10–13. Accordingly, this portion of the disclo-
 sure is suggestive of an effort by the patentee to be its own
 lexicographer and describe “point of view” as something
 that includes both an object’s position and perspective.
 Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1316 (“[T]he specification may reveal
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 a special definition given to a claim term by the patentee
 that differs from the meaning it would otherwise pos-
 sess. . . . [T]he inventor’s lexicography governs.”) (citing
 CCS Fitness, Inc. v. Brunswick Corp., 288 F.3d 1359, 1366
 (Fed. Cir. 2002)). On its own, this passage would seem to
 support Corephotonics’ and the Board’s interpretation of
 the challenged claim term.
      That said, the claim does not require that the fused im-
 age maintain “the Wide camera’s point of view.” Instead,
 it specifically states that that fused image must maintain
 “a point of view of the Wide camera.” ’479 patent col. 13
 l. 48 (emphasis added). A reasonable reading of the full
 passage from the specification reproduced above is that
 Wide perspective and Wide position are two different types
 of Wide point of view. The claim term requires only that
 the fused image maintain “a point of view of the Wide cam-
 era,” i.e., only one of the disclosed types of Wide point of
 view. See Salazar v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 64 F.4th 1311,
 1315 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (“We have explained that the indefi-
 nite article ‘a’ means ‘one or more.’”). In this case, the in-
 ventor took pains in the specification to describe different
 types of point of view—Wide position, Wide perspective,
 Tele position, and Tele perspective—but intentionally
 chose to claim only “a point of view of the Wide camera.”
 And there is no indication in the claims, specification, or
 otherwise that the patentee meant to claim their invention
 more narrowly. See, e.g., Convolve, Inc. v. Compaq Com-
 put. Corp., 812 F.3d 1313, 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (“[A]bsent
 a clear intent in the claims themselves, the specification,
 or the prosecution history, we interpret ‘a processor’ to
 mean ‘one or more processors.’”).
     Indeed, the specification discloses embodiments where
 the fused image has a mixed point of view. The above pas-
 sage explains that in certain embodiments, the resulting
 fused image’s “perspective POV may be of the Wide or Tele
 sub-cameras, while the position POV may shift continu-
 ously between the Wide and Tele sub-cameras.” ’479
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 12                         APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 patent col. 5 ll. 20–23. In other words, the specification dis-
 closes embodiments where the fused image has any combi-
 nation of a Wide or Tele perspective POV and a Wide or
 Tele position POV. For example, the fused image may have
 a Tele perspective POV and a Wide position POV, or per-
 haps a Wide perspective POV and a Tele position POV.
 Our caselaw counsels against interpreting the claims in a
 way that would omit a disclosed embodiment absent clear
 evidence to the contrary. Sequoia Tech., LLC v. Dell, Inc.,
 66 F.4th 1317, 1327 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (“[W]e also recognize
 that ‘a claim construction excluding a preferred embodi-
 ment is rarely, if ever correct.’”) (quoting Kaufman v. Mi-
 crosoft Corp., 34 F.4th 1360, 1372 (Fed. Cir. 2022))
 (cleaned up). Here, Corephotonics’ proposed construc-
 tion—requiring the fused image to have Wide perspective
 and Wide position POV—would exclude various embodi-
 ments disclosed by the specification.
     We acknowledge that neither the claim language nor
 the specification presents a cut-and-dry case of claim con-
 struction regarding this claim term. Taken together and
 in context, however, the intrinsic evidence supports that
 the claim term requiring a fused image maintaining “a
 point of view of the Wide camera” requires only that the
 fused image maintain Wide perspective point of view or
 Wide position point of view, but does not require both. Be-
 cause we ultimately conclude that Apple’s proposed con-
 struction is more in line with the intrinsic evidence, we do
 not adopt the Board’s construction of “fused image with a
 point of view of the Wide camera.” Accordingly, we vacate
 and remand the Board’s final written decision in the first
 IPR for further proceedings in view of this claim construc-
 tion. See, e.g., Kaken Pharm. Co., Ltd. v. Iancu, 952 F.3d
 1346, 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (“[T]he appropriate course in
 this case, as in so many other involving a reversal of a
 Board claim construction, is to vacate the Board’s decision
 and remand the matter.”).
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                               II
     We now turn to the second final written decision. In
 the ’906 IPR, the Board based its decision almost entirely
 on its determination that the declaration submitted by Ap-
 ple’s expert, Dr. Sasián, was unreliable because of a typo-
 graphical error he made regarding the lens data. Apple
 challenges this decision as violative of the APA.
     The APA imposes important limits on the Board’s au-
 thority during inter partes reviews. Under the APA, “[p]er-
 sons entitled to notice of an agency hearing shall be timely
 informed of . . . the matters of fact and law asserted,”
 5 U.S.C. § 554(b)(3), and the Board “shall give all inter-
 ested parties opportunity for . . . the submission and con-
 sideration of facts [and] arguments,” id. § 554(c)(1). In
 other words, “the Board must base its decision on argu-
 ments that were advanced by a party, and to which the op-
 posing party was given a chance to respond.” In re
 Magnum Oil Tools Int’l, Ltd., 829 F.3d 1364, 1381
 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
     In Magnum Oil, we reversed the Board’s final written
 decision that held all challenged claims were unpatentable
 as obvious. Id. The Board had determined that the chal-
 lenged claims would have been obvious in view of a combi-
 nation of prior art that differed from that asserted in the
 petition, id. at 1377, a combination that the petitioner had
 made only conclusory statements to support, id. at 1380.
 We held that, under the APA, the Board erred in adopting
 an argument that the petitioner had not sufficiently made.
 Id. at 1381; see also, e.g., Nike, Inc. v. Adidas AG, 955 F.3d
 45, 53 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (if raising an issue sua sponte, the
 Board must “give[] the parties notice and an opportunity to
 respond”).
     Our decision in Power Integrations, Inc. v. Lee is simi-
 larly instructive. 797 F.3d 1318 (Fed. Cir. 2015). There,
 the Board spent a “significant portion of [its] decision” as-
 sessing the proper construction of a claim term that the
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 14                         APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 parties did not dispute. Id. at 1325. We determined that
 because so much of the “[B]oard’s analysis is focused on a
 red herring,” it “failed to straightforwardly and thoroughly
 assess the critical issue” outlined by the parties and de-
 prived the parties of an opportunity to respond to the
 Board’s claim construction. Id. This, we explained, was a
 violation of the APA.
     In this case, the Board focused almost entirely on the
 typographical error in Dr. Sasián’s expert declaration, de-
 termining that the Abbe number error (among others that
 the Board identified sua sponte in its final written decision)
 meant that Apple had not met its burden to show the chal-
 lenged claims were unpatentable. ’906 IPR Decision at 15–
 17. Certainly, the Board is entitled to set aside technical
 expert testimony that it finds not scientifically reliable on
 the record. See, e.g., Granite Constr. Co. v. United States,
 962 F.2d 998, 1006 (Fed. Cir. 1992) (recognizing the Board
 “may reject even uncontroverted expert testimony when it
 is intrinsically unpersuasive”); see also TQ Delta, LLC
 v. CISCO Sys., Inc., 942 F.3d 1352, 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2019)
 (“[C]onclusory expert testimony is inadequate to support
 an obviousness determination.”). The Board is also of
 course free to make credibility determinations, weigh the
 evidence, and decide for itself what persuades it. See Re-
 gents of the Univ. of Minn. v. Gilead Scis., Inc., 61 F.4th
 1350, 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (“It is within the discretion of
 the Board to weigh the evidence of record.”); Yorkey
 v. Diab, 601 F.3d 1279, 1284 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (“We defer to
 the Board’s findings concerning the credibility of expert
 witnesses.”). But its explanations must be supported by
 substantial evidence, and its decisions must be reached
 only after the parties have been provided fair notice and an
 opportunity to be heard. TQ Delta, 942 F.3d at 1358
 (“[T]he Board is obligated to ‘provide an administrative rec-
 ord showing the evidence on which the findings are based,
 accompanied by the agency’s reasoning in reaching its
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 conclusions.’”) (quoting In re Lee, 277 F.3d 1338, 1342
 (Fed. Cir. 2002)).
      Here, the Board found that Apple failed to show there
 would have been a reasonable expectation of success in
 making its proposed prior art combination because of er-
 rors in Dr. Sasián’s expert declaration that neither party
 asserted were material to the claimed invention—and only
 one of which Corephotonics even identified as an error.
 ’906 IPR Decision at 19 (“For the reasons discussed above,
 we find Petitioner has failed to muster sufficient evidence
 to demonstrate . . . that Ogata’s lens could have been scaled
 to work in Parulski’s camera with a reasonable expectation
 of success.”). The main error relied on by the Board in its
 final written decision is the Abbe number error, an error
 Corephotonics mentioned in passing only once in the Back-
 ground section of its Response. Patent Owner’s Resp. at
 31, Apple, Inc. v. Corephotonics Ltd., No. IPR2020-00905,
 Paper 15 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 4, 2021). Corephotonics did not
 mention the error again. See generally id. at 36–68. It did
 not rely on this error in any of its arguments on the merits.
 And it did not contend that this error demonstrated that
 there would have been no reasonable expectation of success
 or that it alone was a sufficient basis to find all of Dr. Sas-
 ián’s analysis unreliable. Nor could it—the Abbe number
 is neither recited in the challenged claims nor does the rec-
 ord contain any evidence that it impacts any lens parame-
 ter that is recited in the challenged claims. See ’479 patent
 col. 14 l. 66–col. 15 l. 48 (claims 19–22). Corephotonics’ ex-
 pert explained that the error would only impact the calcu-
 lations for “field curvature, distortion, and OPD fan plots,”
 items that are similarly neither claimed nor impact param-
 eters that are. J.A. 4798 ¶ 62. In fact, data regarding “field
 curvature, distortion, and OPD fan plots” appears nowhere
 in Dr. Sasián’s declaration, illustrating its lack of rele-
 vance to the issues argued by the parties.
    The Board failed to provide a reasoned explanation for
 why it found the Abbe number error meaningful. All it said
Case: 22-1350    Document: 42      Page: 16    Filed: 09/11/2023

 16                         APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.

 was that “the opinion of a person skilled in the art will be
 only as reliable as the lens design software analysis that
 person performed, which will be only as reliable as the data
 used to perform that analysis.” ’906 IPR Decision at 13–
 17. But we are not able to discern from the Board’s decision
 why Dr. Sasián’s typographical error may have rendered
 unreliable the portions of Dr. Sasián’s analysis relevant to
 the obviousness grounds at issue.
      The parties’ arguments regarding obviousness, and
 specifically whether there would have been a reasonable
 expectation of success in combining Parulski and Ogata, fo-
 cused entirely on questions of manufacturability and scala-
 bility. The single typographical error made by Dr. Sasián,
 on the other hand, was never identified by the parties as a
 dispositive issue, the resolution of which renders it unnec-
 essary also to resolve the parties’ disputes regarding man-
 ufacturing and scalability.       Further, the additional
 “inconsistencies” identified by the Board—purported mis-
 takes regarding “aspherical surface” data, ’906 IPR Deci-
 sion at 15—were never mentioned by the parties. Indeed,
 both parties appear to agree these “inconsistencies” were
 not even errors in the first place. Appellant’s Br. 65–67;
 Appellee’s Br. 45–46.
      On this record, the Board’s determination that the ty-
 pographical error in Dr. Sasián’s declaration was essen-
 tially dispositive of the issues in the case does not comport
 with the notice requirements of the APA. Apple (and Core-
 photonics, for that matter) had no reason to anticipate that
 the typographical error would be the basis for the Board’s
 decision, given that the parties did not brief, argue, or even
 suggest this error was dispositive or would impact the
 claimed lens parameters. See Magnum Oil, 829 F.3d
 at 1381 (“[T]he Board must base its decision on arguments
 that were advanced by a party, and to which the opposing
 party was given a chance to respond.”). Said otherwise, as
 in Power Integrations, the Board spent a “significant por-
 tion of [its] opinion” assessing an issue that no party
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 APPLE INC. v. COREPHOTONICS, LTD.                           17

 meaningfully raised or asserted was relevant. 797 F.3d
 at 1325. And because the Board’s analysis was focused on
 this issue, it failed to “thoroughly assess the critical issue”
 outlined by the parties, i.e., whether there would have been
 a reasonable expectation of success in combining Parulski
 and Ogata, considering manufacturing and scalability con-
 cerns. Because the Board based its decision on a typo-
 graphical error without sufficiently explaining its
 significance, made sua sponte findings that lacked substan-
 tial evidence, and did not resolve the issue the parties pre-
 sented, we vacate the Board’s final written decision and
 remand for further proceedings that meet the APA’s re-
 quirements for notice and the opportunity to respond.
                         CONCLUSION
      We have considered the parties’ remaining arguments
 but do not find them persuasive. For the foregoing reasons,
 we vacate the Board’s final written decisions and remand
 for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
                VACATED AND REMANDED

                             COSTS

 Costs to Apple.