Kolcraft Enterprises, Inc. v. Graco Children’s Products, Inc.

Kolcraft’s 970 and 231 Design Patents are both titled “Exposed Legs for a Play Yard” and have an effective filing date of November 2004. In 2016, Graco sought inter partes review, challenging the patents on multiple grounds. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board instituted a single trial addressing both patents on grounds related to the prior art (Chen). In its Patent Owner Response, Kolcraft included a declaration signed by inventors with exhibits. Neither the Declaration nor the exhibits included specific dates of conception. Graco deposed the inventors. The Board concluded that Chen is prior art because Kolcraft failed to show that conception, diligence, and reduction to practice of the patents occurred before Chen was filed and that the testimony of the inventors that they conceived of the play yard invention before Chen's effective filing date was not corroborated by non-inventor testimony, documents, or other evidence. The Board relied on the redacted version of the Inventor Declaration and did not take into account inventor deposition testimony of prior conception, finding Kolcraft’s reliance on inventor deposition testimony to be waived as it was raised for the first time at oral hearing. The Board determined and the Federal Circuit affirmed that the patents-in-suit were obvious in view of Chen. View "Kolcraft Enterprises, Inc. v. Graco Children's Products, Inc." on Justia Law