Wednesday, July 28, 2021
After trying to untie the Gordian knot of patent eligibility, it is almost IP comfort food to read a Fed. Cir. decision that deals with obviousness. In Chemours Co. FC, LLC v Daikin Industries, Ltd., Appeal Nos. 2020-1289 and 2020-1290 (Fed. Cir., July 22, 2021) a split panel of Reyna (writing) and Newman (Happy Birthday!) with Dyk dissenting, reversed a PTAB final written decision that a co-polymer useful for coating cables at high extrusion speeds (30 +/- 3 g/10 minutes) is obvious. Claim 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,126,609 reads:
“1. A partially-crystalline co-polymer comprising tetrafluoroethylene [TFE],[and] hexafluoropropylene [HFP] in an amount corresponding to a [HFP] index (HPI) of from about 2.8-5.3…and having a melt flow rate of within the range of about 30 +/- 3g/10 min….”