Crown Packaging Technology, Inc. v. Belvac Production MacHinery, Inc.

122 F.4th 919
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit·Decided December 10, 2024·No. 22-2299·Published

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

CROWN PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC., CARNAUDMETALBOX ENGINEERING LTD., Plaintiffs-Appellants

v.

BELVAC PRODUCTION MACHINERY, INC., Defendant-Cross-Appellant

2022-2299, 2022-2300

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in No. 6:18-cv-00070-NKM- RSB, Senior Judge Norman K. Moon.

Decided: December 10, 2024

DANIEL J. GOETTLE, Baker & Hostetler LLP, Philadelphia, PA, argued for plaintiffs-appellants. Also represented by STEPHANIE M. HATZIKYRIAKOU, JEFFREY LESOVITZ.

DAVID EVAN FINKELSON, McGuireWoods LLP, Richmond, VA, argued for defendant-cross-appellant. Also represented by BRIAN CHARLES RIOPELLE, BRIAN DAVID SCHMALZBACH.

2 CROWN PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC. v.

BELVAC PRODUCTION MACHINERY, INC.

Before DYK, HUGHES, and CUNNINGHAM, Circuit Judges.

DYK, Circuit Judge.

Crown Packaging Technology, Inc. and related English corporation CarnaudMetalbox Engineering Ltd. (collectively, “Crown”) brought suit against Belvac Production Machinery, Inc. (“Belvac”) for infringement of various claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,308,570 (“the ’570 patent”), 9,968,982 (“the ’982 patent”), and 10,751,784 (“the ’784 patent”) (collectively, “the asserted patents”) relating to necking machines. Belvac raised the affirmative defense of invalidity under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(b), asserting that a necking machine embodying the invention claimed in the asserted claims was on sale by Crown in this country before the critical date of the patents.

Both parties sought summary judgment on this issue.

The United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia granted summary judgment to Crown that the three patents were not invalid under the on-sale bar and denied summary judgment to Belvac. After a jury trial, the district court entered a judgment in accordance with the jury verdict that the asserted claims of the patents were not invalid and not infringed. Crown appealed the judgment of noninfringement, and Belvac appealed the judgment of no invalidity. Because the undisputed record shows that the asserted claims of the three patents were the subject of an invalidating offer for sale in the United States, we reverse and remand for a final judgment of invalidity. We do not reach the issue of infringement.

BACKGROUND

I

During the manufacture of metal beverage cans, it is common to reduce the diameter of the top of the can body through a process called “necking.” The asserted patents

CROWN PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC. v. 3 BELVAC PRODUCTION MACHINERY, INC.

concern horizontal, multi-stage necking machines for necking cans at high speed and recite device claims on necking machines and assemblies. The earliest priority date of the three patents is April 24, 2008. The key question in this appeal is whether Crown, before the April 24, 2007, critical date of the asserted patents, made a commercial offer for sale in this country within the meaning of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(b).

Crown, the owner of the asserted patents, makes and sells the CMB3400 necking machine. Before the critical date of the asserted patents, Crown sent a letter dated November 14, 2006, to a third party, Complete Packaging Machinery (“Complete”), that provided a “quotation” regarding Crown’s CMB3400 necking machine and that was addressed to Complete’s Arvada, Colorado address.1 In a record documenting the sending of the letter, Crown listed Complete as “CPM, USA.” J.A. 4763.

The letter, titled “Quotation Number Q22764,”

included a description and price for a 13 stage “3400 Die Necker,” and it specified delivery as Complete’s “nominated point of delivery,” or alternatively, if no written nomination was received at the time ready for shipment, “our [(Crown’s)] premises.” J.A. 4724, 4731. It recited payment terms of “50% with order, 50% after buy-off in [Crown’s] plant but payment must be received before despatch.” J.A. 4730. The letter represented that the necking machine would be “[p]acked, ready for despatch 30 weeks from receipt of order,” J.A. 4725, and that Crown would make “[e]very effort . . . to carry out the contract” in the event an eventuality made performance under the contract uncertain, J.A. 4732. The letter further dictated that

1 The letter to Complete lists “CarnaudMetalbox Engineering plc” as the sender. J.A. 4725, 4734. This company is encompassed within our definition of Crown.

4 CROWN PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC. v.

BELVAC PRODUCTION MACHINERY, INC.

“[q]uotations are valid for sixty days only and are subject to [Crown’s] written acceptance of your order.” J.A. 4731.

There is no indication that Complete ordered a necking machine, but Belvac contends that the letter was a commercial offer for sale to an entity in this country sent before the critical date, describing a necking machine that was ready for patenting and embodied the claimed invention of the asserted patents.

Crown sent similar communications to other companies dated between May and August 2007, less than one year before the earliest filing date of the asserted patents. Upon receiving orders in response to these other communications, Crown recorded the orders on internal order entry documents and sent “acknowledgements” of receipt of the orders. These communications do not directly implicate the pre-AIA on-sale bar because they were sent to companies after the critical date of the asserted patents and some were sent to a foreign country.

II

Crown filed suit against Belvac in the Western District of Virginia, alleging infringement of the asserted patents. Among other defenses, Belvac raised the affirmative defense of invalidity under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(b), arguing that the letter to Complete was an invalidating offer for sale of the CMB3400 necking machine prior to the critical date of the asserted patents.

The parties cross-moved for summary judgment on the issue of the on-sale bar. Crown did not dispute that the CMB3400 necking machine was ready for patenting and embodied the claims of the asserted patents, nor did it dispute that the letter to Complete was sent before the asserted patents’ critical date. However, it argued that (1) the letter was not a commercial offer for sale because it could not have created a binding contract through

CROWN PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC. v. 5 BELVAC PRODUCTION MACHINERY, INC.

acceptance; and (2) the letter was not an offer for sale “in this country.” The district court concluded that the letter to Complete was “an invitation to make an offer, not an offer in itself,” J.A. 108, and consequently granted Crown’s motion and denied Belvac’s motion.

At trial, the jury determined that the asserted patent claims were not invalid for lack of written description, were not obvious, and were not infringed. After trial, Crown filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law (“JMOL”) or a new trial on infringement of the ’982 and ’784 patents,2 and Belvac separately sought JMOL or a new trial on invalidity for lack of written description and for obviousness of the asserted patents. The district court denied both parties’ motions and entered judgment accordingly.

Crown appealed the district court’s noninfringement judgment on the ’982 and ’784 patents, and Belvac crossappealed the district court’s judgment regarding the on- sale bar and written description with respect to all asserted patents. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).

DISCUSSION

I

We need only address the district court’s summary judgment decision rejecting the on-sale bar. We hold that the invention claimed by the asserted patents was the subject of an invalidating offer for sale in this country prior to the patents’ critical date under § 102(b) of the pre-AIA statute. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment on this issue and its denial of

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Crown Packaging Technology, Inc. v. Belvac Production MacHinery, Inc., 122 F.4th 919 (Fed. Cir. 2024).

122 F.4th 919 (Crown Packaging Technology, Inc. v. Belvac Production MacHinery, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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