Forum US, Inc. v. Flow Valve, LLC

Flow Valve’s patent, entitled “Workpiece Supporting Assembly,” is a reissue of the 213 patent. During reissue prosecution, Flow added claims 14-20 but made no changes to the written description or drawings of the original 213 patent. The Reissue patent relates to supporting assemblies--fixtures, for holding workpieces during machining. Forum sought a declaration of invalidity of the Reissue patent, arguing that the added reissue claims did not comply with the original patent requirement under 35 U.S.C. 251 and improperly broadened the original patent claims by omitting the arbor limitations. Flow argued that a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the patent disclosed multiple inventions, consisting of embodiments with and without arbors and supported its argument with an expert declaration from an experienced machinist. The Federal Circuit summary judgment in favor of Forum. The original patent does not disclose the invention claimed in the reissue patent. The reissue claims, therefore, do not comply with the original patent requirement as a matter of law. The few references in the written description to machining, in general, do not refer to or disclose specific embodiments, and the boilerplate language that modifications can be made to the original disclosed invention does not even suggest an arbor-less embodiment of the disclosed invention. View "Forum US, Inc. v. Flow Valve, LLC" on Justia Law