Fresh From the Bench: Latest Federal Circuit Court Cases

Nalco Co. v. Chem-Mod, LLC, Appeal No. 17-1036 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 27, 2018)

In Nalco Company v. Chem-Mod, LLC, the Federal Circuit reviewed the district court’s decision to dismiss Nalco Company’s complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.  The Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s decision finding that Nalco was not required to prove its case at the pleading stage and that disputes regarding claim construction are not properly resolved on a motion to dismiss.

The claims all concerned a “method for the removal of elemental mercury, a toxic pollutant, from the flue gas created by combustion in coal-fired power plants.”  Specifically, a chemical is added to the process, which combines with the mercury in flue gas to form particles that can be filtered more easily.  Preferably, this chemical is added in the combustion zone of the furnace.  The defendants add the chemical in a different area of the plant.

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Knowles Electronics LLC v. Cirrus Logic, Inc., Appeal No. 2016-2010 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 1, 2018)

In an appeal from an inter partes reexamination, the Court held that the broadest reasonable interpretation of a term in a preamble of a patent could be different from the construction that the Federal Circuit held applied to the same term in the same claims in the same patent in an appeal of a different case.  The Court also found claims to be invalid based on the written description requirement in 35 U.S.C. § 112, because the specification disclosed a genus and the claims recited an undisclosed species within that genus.  Finally, the Court addressed the propriety of parties to the inter partes reexamination.  Judge Newman dissented on the claim construction issue.

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Written by: Scott D. Eads and Nika F. Aldrich, Schwabe, Williamson & Waytt, P.C.

Contributor:  Cristin Wagner