Court Opinion

ID: 9495356
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:01:03.783249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:58.671269
License: Public Domain

MAYER, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
Because I believe the district court properly determined that the jury’s verdict is supported by substantial evidence, I dissent. I would affirm the judgment that claim 9 of U.S. Patent No. 5,169,716 is invalid for anticipation.
A claim is anticipated if a single prior art reference contains each and every limitation either expressly or inherently. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Ben Venue Labs., Inc., 246 F.3d 1368, 1374, 58 USPQ2d 1508, 1512 (Fed.Cir.2001). Anticipation is a factual question that we review for substantial evidence on appeal from a jury trial. Advanced Display Sys. Inc. v. Kent State Univ., 212 F.3d 1272, 1281, 54 USPQ2d 1673, 1678 (Fed.Cir.2000).
The record contains substantial evidence to support the jury’s determination that every limitation of claim 9 of the '716 patent, which was filed on May 11, 1989, was present in Ricon Resin’s Ricoseal in 1986. Claim 9 contains fourteen limitations. Limitations 1, 2, and 3, that the eneapsulant at issue be used as an insulating covering for signal transmission de*1310vices, are met by record evidence that Ricon Resin sold Ricoseal as a “cable en-capsulant.” Ricoseal met limitation 4, a C-H adhesion value of at least 4.0, because Ricoseal had a total solubility parameter of about 8.0, and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company’s (3M) expert testified at trial that that would inherently mean the claimed C-H value. In its brief, 3M admitted that the product is an admixture of the required compounds, limitation 5, but denied that Ricon demonstrated any evidence of actual mixing. Chemque’s technical expert, Brauer, however, testified that there is no question that Ricon mixed the compounds together, and 3M’s employee Haugen testified that he understood that Ricoseal was a two-part compound, of which 3M received a sample with descriptive product literature. Limitations 6 and 8 are met, “effective amounts of’ the active compounds, by Ricon’s notebooks setting out the precise amount of each compound used in Ricoseal; and 3M admits that the anhydride functionalized compound, limitation 7, and the cross-linking agent, limitation 9, are present in Ricoseal. 3M’s technical expert, Fahey, during cross-examination, admitted that Ricoseal was a crosslinked material, limitation 10. In its brief; 3M admitted that limitations 11 and 12 are present in Ricoseal. With twenty-three years of experience in the field of encapsulants, Chemque’s expert, Brauer, testified that Ricoseal would be substantially non-exuding, limitation 13, and Ricon’s records state that the patented compound R131/MA was superior to R184/MA for which only “some bleeding” occurred. Last, 3M’s expert, Croft, stated that with a solubility parameter of about 8.0, a polycarbonate value of at least 80, limitation 14, was inherent.