by Dennis Crouch
In re Aspen Aerogels, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020) (non-precedential)
The basic question in this ex parte appeal is whether the asserted references teach the layering of aerogels as required by the insulation materials claim pending before the USPTO. The pending APN 14/446,663 was filed in 2014, but claims a chain of priority stretching back to a 2005 provisional patent application. The basic idea here is that aerogel is a great insulator, but is fragile, so the claim requires fiber-reinforcement. The claim particularly requires two plys of fiber-reinforced aerogel — and that the fibers in the plys are interlaced with one-another.
Claim 1: A composite comprising
[a] at least one first ply of fiber-reinforced aerogel material adjacent to [b] at least one second ply of fiber-containing material,
wherein fibers from the at least one first ply of fiber-reinforced aerogel material are interlaced with fibers from the at least one second ply of fiber-containing material.
The examiner rejected the claim as obvious and that was affirmed by the PTAB. The Federal Circuit has now affirmed.
- U.S. Patent App. No. 2002/0094426 (Stepanian) taught having the two layers of fiver-reinforced aerogel, but did not teach the interlacing of fibers.
- Japanese Patent No. 2000-080549 (Sano) teaches interlacing of fibers of layers using needle-felting.
Aspen’s argument on appeal is that Stepanian does not actually teach plys as claimed but rather two masses of undifferentiated aerogel. On appeal here, Aerogel presented this as a question of law involving the definition of the term claim term “ply.” The Federal Circuit here rejected that approach — holding instead that the real question is whether the prior art discloses the plys. The difference between these two approaches is very important on appeal: Claim construction is reviewed de novo on appeal without deference to the PTO determination; Content of the prior art is reviewed for substantial evidence with major deference going to the PTO.
[W]e determine the issue to be a factual question of whether the prior art teaches an undifferentiated mass of aerogel or teaches layers of fiber-reinforced aerogel as the Board determined. We review this issue for substantial evidence.
Slip Op. Stepanian (which I have previously discussed in PatentlyO) clearly shows layers, and particularly defines Fig 3 (below) as disclosing “a 3-layer laminate.” But, the issue is that Stepanian stacks the fibers and then pours in the areogel over the layers of fibers. The PTAB made the factual conclusion that Stepanian disclosed “plys” of fiber-aerogel, even with the pour-over approach, and the appellate panel found substantial evidence for that conclusion.
Whether layers of fibrous material are filled with aerogel and then stacked or stacked and then filled with aerogel makes no difference if the result is the same as the claimed composite here.
Slip Op.
Note here, that Aerogel is also the owner of the Stepanian patent application (and issued patent). The problem though is that the Stepanian application was published back in 2002, more than 1-year before the priority date of the application at issue here.
Rejection affirmed.
If there really is a claim-construction issue here, on remand the patentee may want to amend its claims to make the proper construction exceedingly clear and then rejoin the rodeo.
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If we go back to the heart of this matter: Aergoel appealed on claim construction, the Federal Circuit says “the real issue is not claim construction but rather the content of the prior art” (paraphrase). The court then goes on to refuse to decide the claim construction issue and instead decide the case on the alternative grounds.
Truthfully, this seems wrong. The appellate court should have decided the issue raised by the appellant (claim construction) and ended the case there. I read appellant’s brief who particularly stated that no factual question is being appealed: “There is no dispute here about any relevant fact.”
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Poongs Muthukumaran, chief counsel for Aspen argued for his employer; Kakoli Caprihan argued for the PTO.