Court Opinion

ID: 9451164
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:08:22.690395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:35.739962
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
The majority bases its affirmance on the grounds that the Claim at issue, Claim 2, did not set forth the advantageous construction of the invention and that it is worded so as to include other structures and is thus too broad. I cannot find support in the record for either ground.
The District Court refused Appellants’ application for a patent under 35 U.S.C. § 145 because it believed that “the functional recitations do not seem comprehensive enough to distinguish structurally from the references in a manner unobvious to persons having ordinary skill in the art.” Taking a slightly different tack, the majority states that the advantage of the invention is not explicitly stated in Claim 2 and that therefore Claim 2 does not define a patentable invention. But the record contains uncontradicted expert testimony directed specifically at Claim 2 stating that it does in fact describe an invention that removes the sleeve pressure from the stopper head by transferring it to a flange. It is well settled that the advantages of an invention need only to be stated so that an expert in the field can understand it. Hazeltine Research, Inc. v. Dage Electric Co., Inc., 271 F.2d 218, 220-221 (7th Cir. 1959).
Although Appellee had urged in the District Court that the Claim was so broad as to violate 35 U.S.C. § 112, that court made no determination on this point. The contention that the Claim was too broadly written to satisfy 35 U.S.C. § 112 wins acceptance for the first time on this appeal. We are not told by the majority how or why that Claim is too broadly worded but are presented only with a naked assertion of a conclusion. Possibly the majority is relying on Appellee’s drawings, based on Claim 2, which show a structure that does not remove the sleeve load from the head as the Claim urges. Since the asserted advantage of the Claim is inconsistent with Appellee’s drawings, if the advantageous construction is revealed to one skilled in the art by the language of the Claim, then the drawings of Appellee are not accurate expressions of what Appellants’ Claim represents. The issue of broadness, then, may be merely one facet of the question whether the Claim sufficiently disclosed the advantageous construction. Because the trial court’s finding on this issue was contrary to uncontradicted testimony, I would remand for further consideration and clarification on this issue.