Kennametal, Inc. v. Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company

780 F.3d 1376, 114 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1250, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 4832, 2015 WL 1319364
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedMarch 25, 2015
Docket2014-1350
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 780 F.3d 1376 (Kennametal, Inc. v. Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kennametal, Inc. v. Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company, 780 F.3d 1376, 114 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1250, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 4832, 2015 WL 1319364 (Fed. Cir. 2015).

Opinion

LINN, Circuit Judge.

Kennametal, Inc. (“Kennametal”) appeals the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) in an inter partes reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 7,244,519 (the “'519 patent”) in which the Board: (a) entered a new anticipation ground of rejection asserted by Ingersoll Cutting Tool Co. (“Ingersoll”) against certain of the pending claims; and (b) affirmed the Examiner’s obviousness rejection of certain remaining claims. See Ingersoll Cutting Tool Co. v. TDY Indus., Reexamination Ctrl. No. 95/001,417, available at 2013 WL 6039030 (P.T.A.B. Nov. 12, 2013) (“Board Decision on Rehearing”); Ingersoll, available at 2013 WL 3294868 (P.T.A.B. May 6, 2013) (“Initial Board Decision”). Because substantial evidence supports the Board’s determinations of anticipation and obviousness and because we see no error in the Board’s legal conclusion of obviousness, we affirm.

I. Background

A. The '519 Patent

The '519 patent was filed in 2004 and issued in 2007. The '519 patent relates to cutting tools containing ruthenium as a binder that are coated using physical vapor deposition (“PVD”). See, e.g., '519 patent Title; id. Abstract. The patent explains that cemented carbide cutting tools are generally useful. Id. col. 111. 15-19. These tools are made by consolidating hard particles and a binder to form a compact, which is then sintered to form a tool blank from which a variety of tools can be formed. Id. col. 1 11. 19-26. Cobalt is often used in the binder. Id. col. 111. 48-50.

According to the '519 patent, it was unusual to include ruthenium with cobalt in the binder, and, in those instances when a cobalt-ruthenium binder was used, no one had coated the tools using PVD. Id. col. 1 11. 54-56, col. 2 11. 58-61. The patent suggests that the reason cobalt-ruthenium binders were not coated by PVD was be *1379 cause the use of cobalt in a binder tends to create cobalt structures on the surface — a process known as “cobalt capping.” Id. col. 3 11. 6-10; id. col. 3 11. 38-40. This problem is supposedly exacerbated when ruthenium is included in the binder. Id. col. 3 11. 13-15. According to the patent, PVD coating — -which is done at a lower temperature than other methods of coating, such as chemical vapor deposition — is not hot enough to re-melt the surface of the binder, so coatings applied via PVD do not adhere well to binders that produce cobalt capping. Id. col. 3 11. 33-36. Additionally, PVD coatings, as "the patent describes, can be too thin to compensate for the cobalt capping effect. Id. col. 3 11. 36-37.

The inventors assigned their interests in the invention claimed in the '519 patent to TDY Industries, Inc. (“TDY”) at the time the application for the patent was filed. '519 patent Assignee. In 2010, TDY sued Ingersoll for infringement of the '519 patent. TDY Indus. Inc. v. Ingersoll Cutting Tool Co., No. 2:10-cv-00790-CB (W.D.Pa., filed June 10, 2010). After the suit was filed, TDY assigned the '519 patent to Kennametal. Ingersoll successfully petitioned the Patent and Trademark Office (the “Patent Office”) for inter partes reexamination. of the '519 patent, and the district court, in turn, stayed the litigation.

B. Proceedings at the Patent Office

Ingersoll submitted a request for inter partes reexamination, claiming that some of the original claims were anticipated under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) and all of the claims were obvious under § 103(a). The Examiner did not adopt any of Ingersoll’s' proposed anticipation rejections but did reject all of the pending claims as obvious. In response, the patentee amended the existing claims and filed numerous new claims. Pending claim 1 is representative, and recites as amended:

1. A cutting tool, comprising:
a cemented carbide substrate, wherein the substrate comprises hard particles and a binder, and the binder comprises ruthenium; and
at least one physical vapor deposition coating on at least a portion of the substrate.

Ingersoll again proposed both anticipation and obviousness rejections. The Examiner refused to adopt the anticipation rejections but did reject all of the claims as obvious. Kennametal appealed the rejections, and Ingersoll cross-appealed the Examiner’s refusal to adopt its proposed anticipation rejections.

In the Initial Board Decision, the Board found that the Examiner erred in not adopting Ingersoll’s proposed rejection of pending claims 1-4, 9-18, 23, 24, 27-31, 35, 36, 45, 46, 49, 50, 58, 83, 85 and 89 as anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 6,554,548 to Grab (“Grab”). Initial Board Decision, at *3-5.

The Board found that claim 5 of Grab expressly described the majority of .the elements recited in pending claim 1 of the '519 patent. Id. at *3-5. Claim 5 of Grab and its parent, claim 1, recite:

1. A coated cutting insert comprising: a rake face and a flank face, a cutting edge at the juncture of the rake face and the flank face;
the cutting insert having a hard refractory coating and a substrate wherein the coating is adherently bonded to the substrate;
the substrate comprising a tungsten carbide-based material comprising a bulk composition of at least about 70 weight percent tungsten and carbon, between about 3 weight percent and *1380 about 12 weight percent cobalt, and at least 0.09 weight percent chromium;
the cobalt and the chromium forming a binder alloy:
wherein the binder alloy content being enriched in a surface zone of binder alloy enrichment beginning near and extending inwardly from a peripheral surface of the substrate; and
wherein the bulk composition of the substrate further comprises tantalum in an amount up to about 10 weight percent, niobium in an amount up to about 6 weight percent, and titanium in an amount up to about 10 weight percent.

5. The coated cutting insert of claim 1 wherein the binder alloy further includes one or more of tungsten, iron, nickel, ruthenium, and rhenium.

The Board noted that claim 5 of Grab specifically recites five metals, one of which was ruthenium. Initial Board Decision, at *4. Claim 5 also recites a “coating,” but, the Board acknowledged, does not state that the coating is applied via PVD. Id. The Board noted, however, that the specification of Grab discloses PVD as one of three contemplated methods of coating. Id. Specifically, Grab states:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
780 F.3d 1376, 114 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1250, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 4832, 2015 WL 1319364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kennametal-inc-v-ingersoll-cutting-tool-company-cafc-2015.