Federal Circuit Reverses PTAB Claim Construction, Reviving Cooling Patent

The U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Thursday, March 7, vacated a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that had held unpatentable sure claims to CoolIT Techniques, Inc.’s patent.

U.S. Patent 9,057,567 is titled “Fluid Warmth Trade Techniques” and is directed to a system for fluid warmth switch to chill digital units. On attraction to the CAFC, CoolIT argued that the PTAB erred in construing one of many declare phrases, “matingly engaged” and that even below the PTAB’s development, the asserted prior artwork didn’t meet the matingly engaged limitation.

The related clause of the consultant declare 1 reads:

“A warmth trade system comprising:….

    A housing member defining a primary aspect and a second aspect, whereby the second
aspect defines a recessed area;
a compliant member matingly engaged with the second aspect of the housing
member,…..

CoolIT argued that the time period “matingly engaged” must be construed as “mechanically joined or fitted collectively to interlock.” Asetek argued it must be construed as “joined or fitted collectively to make contact,” encompassing “[a]ll strategies of becoming a member of or fixing two surfaces.” The Board finally thought CoolIT’s development was too slender and Asetek’s too broad, so “‘partial[ly] constru[ed]’ the time period as no less than being happy ‘when no less than a portion of the recited compliant member is fitted inside the recessed area outlined by the second aspect of the housing member,’” in keeping with the CAFC’s opinion.

In it dialogue, the court docket stated the PTAB was proper that  “[c]laim 1 doesn’t embody” all “kind[s] of engagement. It requires a selected kind of engagement: mating engagement.” Nevertheless, continued the court docket, “from there, the Board’s evaluation went awry.”

Amongst different points, the CAFC stated the Board’s discovering that “nothing in [Asetek’s expert declarations] adequately justifies a plain and atypical meaning-based development that will embody elements that aren’t, on the very least, fitted collectively,” “additionally discovered that the intrinsic proof was in line with the professional testimony that ‘matingly engaged’ ‘refers to elements which might be match collectively,’” and but nonetheless didn’t use the phrase “be part of or match collectively” in its final development. “We discover that to be error,” wrote the CAFC.

After detailing how the PTAB erred in its evaluation, the court docket proposed its personal development primarily based on the file earlier than it. “[W]e conclude that the right development of ‘matingly engaged’ must be ‘mechanically joined or fitted collectively,’” stated the court docket. “Though that precise phrasing was not urged by both celebration or the Board, we discover that it precisely captures the which means of the time period and numerous arguments of the events.”

The court docket thus reversed the Board’s development, vacated its resolution and remanded for additional proceedings below the CAFC’s development.

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Copyright: William Perry