Court Opinion

ID: 9483552
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:23:50.83684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:41.248883
License: Public Domain

PLAGER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join in the carefully-reasoned and well-written opinion of Judge Newman. With regard to Part I dealing with the PTO procedure, her explanation of the meaning and application of the ‘prima facie case’ concept should help clarify an area that remains marked by a lack of clarity. The *1449need for that discussion, however, illustrates the pitfalls of the ‘prima facie’ practice of the PTO, and the difficulties created by this particular legalistically convoluted concept.
An applicant for a patent is entitled to the patent unless the application fails to meet the requirements established by law. It is the Commissioner’s duty (acting through the examining officials) to determine that all requirements of the Patent Act are met. The burden is on the Commissioner to establish that the applicant is not entitled under the law to a patent. In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1016, 154 USPQ 173, 177 (CCPA 1967), cert. denied 389 U.S. 1057, 88 S.Ct. 811, 19 L.Ed.2d 857 (1968). In rejecting an application, factual determinations by the PTO must be based on a preponderance of the evidence, and legal conclusions must be correct. In re Caveney, 761 F.2d 671, 674, 226 USPQ 1, 3 (Fed.Cir.1985).
The process of patent examination is an interactive one. See generally, Chisum, Patents, § 11.03 et seq. (1992). The examiner cannot sit mum, leaving the applicant to shoot arrows into the dark hoping to somehow hit a secret objection harbored by the examiner. The ‘prima facie case’ notion, the exact origin of which appears obscure (see In re Piasecki, 745 F.2d 1468, 1472, 223 USPQ 785, 788 (Fed.Cir.1984)), seemingly was intended to leave no doubt among examiners that they must state clearly and specifically any objections (the prima facie case) to patentability, and give the applicant fair opportunity to meet those objections with evidence and argument. To that extent the concept serves to level the playing field and reduces the likelihood of administrative arbitrariness.
But the ultimate decision that must be made by the PTO in the examination process, and by this court on appeal, is not whether a prima facie ease for rejection was made; the only question is whether, on the whole record, the applicant has met the statutory requirements for obtaining a patent. When a final rejection is described in terms of whether a prima facie case was made, that intermediate issue diverts attention from what should be the question to be decided.
Specifically, when obviousness is at issue, the examiner has the burden of persuasion and therefore the initial burden of production. Satisfying the burden of production, and thus initially the burden of persuasion, constitutes the so-called prima facie showing. Once that burden is met, the applicant has the burden of production to demonstrate that the examiner’s preliminary determination is not correct. The examiner, and if later involved, the Board, retain the ultimate burden of persuasion on the issue.
If, as a matter of law, the issue is in equipoise, the applicant is entitled to the patent. Thus on appeal to this court as in the PTO, the applicant does not bear the ultimate burden of persuasion on the issue. In the end there is no reason there or here to argue over whether a ‘prima facie’ case was made out. The only determinative issue is whether the record as a whole supports the legal conclusion that the invention would have been obvious.