Iqasr LLC v. Wendt Corp.

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit·Decided September 15, 2020·No. 19-2227·Unpublished

Opinion

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

IQASR LLC, Plaintiff-Appellant

v.

WENDT CORP., Defendant-Appellee

2019-2227

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in No. 1:16-cv-01782-MSK-KMT, Senior Judge Marcia S. Krieger.

Decided: September 15, 2020

RUDOLPH A. TELSCHER, JR., Husch Blackwell LLP, St. Louis, MO, for plaintiff-appellant. Also represented by KARA RENEE FUSSNER.

ROBERT R. BRUNELLI, Sheridan Ross P.C., Denver, CO, for defendant-appellee. Also represented by KENDRIA ELIZABETH PEARSON.

Before DYK, CLEVENGER, and HUGHES, Circuit Judges.

2 IQASR LLC v. WENDT CORP.

HUGHES, Circuit Judge.

This case concerns the validity of a patent for an automobile scrap recycling process. IQASR LLC appeals the district court’s decision holding U.S. Patent No. 9,132,432 invalid for indefiniteness. IQASR argues that the district court erred in its application of the legal standard for indefiniteness and in its findings on both the intrinsic and extrinsic evidence. Because the district court did not err in its legal analysis or its factfinding, we affirm.

I

The ’432 patent teaches various methods to sort recyclable materials from non-recyclable materials in “automobile shredder residue.” This term refers to the residue produced by shredding “end-of-life” vehicles, i.e., “scrapped” or “junked” automobiles, for disposal and recycling . The ’432 patent’s claimed methods aim to enhance the separation of non-recyclable materials like “trash and magnetic fuzz” from recyclable materials like “plastics and metals,” allowing recovery of more recyclable materials. See, e.g., ’432 patent at 1:48–50, 2:1–15.

The claim terms whose definiteness is disputed in this appeal, “magnetic fuzz,” and “low susceptance microparticles ” are found in independent claim 1 and dependent claim 13, reproduced below with the relevant terms italicized .

1. A method of separation of automobile shredder residue comprising the steps of: providing automobile shredder residue as a result from a ferrous sorting recovery system;

introducing said automobile shredder residue into an auto mobile shredder residue sorting, non-ferrous recovery system;

non-magnetically sorting magnetic fuzz from said automobile shredder residue with said

IQASR LLC v. WENDT CORP. 3

automobile shredder residue sorting, non- ferrous recovery system;

wherein said sorted magnetic fuzz is substantially free of recyclable materials. 13. A method of separation of automobile shredder residue according to claim 1 wherein said step of non-magnetically sorting magnetic fuzz from said automobile shredder residue with said automobile shredder residue sorting, non-ferrous recovery system comprises the step of non-magnetically sorting separating [sic] low susceptance microparticles from said automobile shredder residue with said automobile shredder residue sorting, non-ferrous recovery system.

’432 patent at 23:7–18, 24:16–23.

II

IQASR sued Wendt Corp. for infringement of the ’432 patent. See IQASR LLC v. Wendt Corp., No. 16-CV-01782- MSK-KMT, 2019 WL 1075477 (D. Colo. Mar. 7, 2019) (Decision ). After a Markman hearing, the district court held the ’432 patent invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 112. See id. The parties disputed six claim terms. Id. at *2–3. In construing these terms, the court found “magnetic fuzz” indefinite, rendering independent claim 1 (and thus the remaining claims, all dependent from claim 1) indefinite. Id. at *6–8. It also found “low susceptance microparticles” in dependent claim 13 indefinite. Id. at *9.

IQASR appeals the district court’s final judgment invalidating all claims of the ’432 patent based on these two terms’ indefiniteness. IQASR having timely appealed, we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).

“[W]e review a district court’s determination that a claim is invalid as indefinite . . . de novo, although, as with claim construction, any factual findings by the district 4 IQASR LLC v. WENDT CORP.

court based on extrinsic evidence are reviewed for clear error .” Sonix Tech. Co. v. Publications Int’l, Ltd., 844 F.3d 1370, 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2017). “To trigger clear error review, ‘it is not enough that the district court may have heard extrinsic evidence during a claim construction proceeding —rather, the district court must have actually made a factual finding.’” Id. (quoting CardSoft, LLC v. Veri Fone, Inc., 807 F.3d 1346, 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2015)). “Moreover , ‘[a] party cannot transform into a factual matter the internal coherence and context assessment of the patent simply by having an expert offer an opinion on it. The internal coherence and context assessment of the patent, and whether it conveys claim meaning with reasonable certainty , are questions of law.’” Id. (quoting Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 789 F.3d 1335, 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2015)).

III

IQASR asserts that the district court erred on three fronts. First, IQASR argues that the district court committed multiple legal errors in applying the law of indefiniteness . These assertions of legal error leak into IQASR’s second and third arguments: that the district court erred in its findings of fact from both the extrinsic evidence proffered and the intrinsic record. We reject each of these arguments because the district court appropriately analyzed the definiteness of the ’432 patent and did not reversibly err in its factfinding. As a result, we affirm the district court’s conclusion that, as used in the ’432 patent, “magnetic fuzz” is indefinite. 1

1 Since we affirm the indefiniteness of “magnetic fuzz,” used in independent claim 1, we need not decide the definiteness of “low susceptance microparticles.” The latter term appears only in claim 13, which depends from

IQASR LLC v. WENDT CORP. 5

We address IQASR’s assertions of error regarding the extrinsic evidence and then its assertions regarding the intrinsic evidence, interspersing its assertions of legal error where relevant to the district court’s analysis of its findings of fact.

A

“In the face of an allegation of indefiniteness, general principles of claim construction apply.” Biosig Instruments , Inc. v. Nautilus, Inc., 783 F.3d 1374, 1377–78 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (quoting Enzo Biochem, Inc. v. Applera Corp., 599 F.3d 1325, 1332 (Fed. Cir. 2010)). “The inquiry into how a person of ordinary skill in the art understands a claim term provides an objective baseline from which to begin claim interpretation.” Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2005). “[T]he ordinary and customary meaning of a claim term is the meaning that the term would have to a person of ordinary skill in the art in question at the time of the invention, i.e., as of the effective filing date of the patent application.” Id.

We do not perceive any clear error in the district court’s finding that “magnetic fuzz” lacks “a readily-understood definition in [its] field.” 2 Decision at *7. “A factual finding is clearly erroneous if, despite some supporting evidence,

claim 1, so our disposition of “magnetic fuzz” renders superfluous the dispute over claim 13’s validity.

2 The scope of the relevant “field” is unclear. On appeal , IQASR asserts that “[i]f ‘magnetic fuzz’ is a term of art . . . it is a term from the automobile recycling industry. A person with no experience in that field cannot competently testify as to whether the term was known and used.” Reply Br. 16. But this contradicts IQASR’s experts, both of whom defined the relevant skilled artisan to include persons with no direct experience in the automotive recycling industry. See J.A. 1236–37; J.A. 1578.

6 IQASR LLC v. WENDT CORP.

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