Yoon Ja Kim v. Earthgrains Co.

60 F. App'x 270
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedMarch 4, 2003
DocketNo. 03-1047
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 60 F. App'x 270 (Yoon Ja Kim v. Earthgrains Co.) 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
Yoon Ja Kim v. Earthgrains Co., 60 F. App'x 270 (Fed. Cir. 2003).

Opinion

DECISION

LOURIE, Circuit Judge.

Yoon Ja Kim appeals from the decision of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granting The Earthgrains Company summary judgment that U.S. Patent Re. 36,355 is invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b). Kim v. The Earthgrains Co., No. 01 C 3895, 2002 WL 1949235 (N.D.Ill. Aug. 22, 2002). We reverse.

BACKGROUND

Ms. Kim filed U.S. Patent Application 08/147,995 on November 5, 1993. That application was directed to a “potassium brómate replacer,” viz., a composition consisting essentially of ascorbic acid, a food acid, an optional phosphate, and flour to serve as a slow-acting oxidant in yeast-leavened products. Kim filed U.S. Patent Application 08/308,617, which was a continuation-in-part of the ’995 application, on September 19, 1994. That application issued as U.S. Patent 5,510,129 on April 23, 1996. The T29 patent was then reissued as U.S. Patent Re. 36,355 on October 26, 1999. The reissued patent contains ten claims directed to potassium brómate re-placers and encompasses broader ranges of components of the invention, which were described in the T29 patent’s specification but not included in the claims initially. Claim 5 of the reissued patent, which is the primary independent claim alleged to be infringed, reads as follows:

A potassium brómate replacer composition consisting essentially of, by weight:
(a) about 0.001 to 0.03 parts ascorbic acid as an oxidant per 100 parts flour,
[271]*271(b) about 0.015 to 0.2 parts food acid per 100 parts flour, said food acid selected from the group consisting of acetic acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, lactic acid, malic acid, oxalic acid, phosphoric acid, succinic acid, tartaric acid, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, vinegar, wine, and mixtures thereof, and
(c) flour.

’355 patent, col. 8,11. 47-57 (emphasis added).

Earthgrains manufactures and sells the accused Butter Top and DTtaliano brand breads, each of which contains ascorbic acid and vinegar (a food acid). The Butter Top and DTtaliano bread products were originally produced by Metz Baking Company but were acquired by Earthgrains when it merged with Metz in 2000.

On May 25, 2001, Kim, acting pro se, filed suit against Earthgrains in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging that Earthgrains’ sale of its Butter Top and DTtaliano breads infringes the ’355 patent because each bread contains amounts of ascorbic acid and a food acid, ie., vinegar, falling within the ranges claimed in the ’355 patent. Earthgrains moved for summary judgment that the '355 patent is invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) on the theory that the Butter Top and DTtaliano breads were on sale more than one year prior to Kim’s earliest patent filing.

The district court granted Earthgrains’ motion for summary judgment. First, the court determined that the earliest possible critical date for the ’355 patent was November 5, 1992, one year before Kim’s earliest filing date relating to the invention claimed in the ’355 patent.1 Kim v. The Earthgrains Co., No. 01 C 3895, 2002 WL 1949235 (N.D.Ill. Aug. 22, 2002). Secondly, the court found that Earthgrains provided unrebutted evidence, in the form of a declaration of Earthgrains’ employee Donald G. Knott, that Butter Top bread was on sale prior to the critical date. Id. While noting that it was not clear from the record whether Butter Top bread contains amounts of ascorbic acid and vinegar that fall within the ranges claimed in the ’355 patent, the court still held that Kim’s allegation that it does contain those amounts and therefore infringes estopped her from arguing that its prior sale does not invalidate the patent. Id. (citing Vanmoor v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 201 F.3d 1363, 53 USPQ2d 1377 (Fed.Cir.2000)). Thus, the court concluded that Kim’s factual allegation that Butter Top bread infringes the ’355 patent combined with Earthgrains’ unrebutted evidence that Butter Top bread was sold prior to the critical date rendered the ’355 patent invalid under § 102(b). Id.

Kim timely appealed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).

DISCUSSION

We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, reapplying the same standard used by the district court. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. v. U.S. Surgical Corp., 149 F.3d 1309, 1315, 47 USPQ2d 1272, 1275 (Fed.Cir.1998). Summary judgment is appropriate “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c). “The evidence of the non[272]*272movant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

On appeal, Kim argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment that the ’355 patent is invalid under § 102(b). Kim contends that the claimed invention was not “in public use or on sale” in the United States before the critical date of November 5, 1992 because Earthgrains’ lack of research and development, Metz’s earlier use of acetic acid in vinegar as a food acid, and a 1994 letter from the FDA demonstrate that potassium brómate was used in the Butter Top and D’ltaliano breads in 1992. Thus, according to Kim, the alleged invalidating sales were not of “potassium brómate replacers.” Moreover, Kim asserts that the Knott declaration, on which the district court relied in granting summary judgment to Earthgrains, contained “contradictory, inaccurate, and misleading statements.” Kim also argues that the court misapplied § 102(b) by not considering the § 101 statutory class, viz., composition of matter, to which the claimed “potassium brómate replacer” belongs.

Earthgrains responds that the district court correctly granted summary judgment that the ’355 patent is invalid under § 102(b). Earthgrains argues that D’ltaliano bread identical to the D’ltaliano bread that Kim alleges infringes the ’355 patent was on sale before the critical date.2 Earthgrains adverts to the Knott declaration, which purports to establish that the 1992 D’ltaliano bread and the accused D’ltaliano bread have “virtually the same” ascorbic acid and vinegar contents, and argues that Kim has never contested the fact that the pre-critical date D’ltaliano bread and the accused D’ltaliano bread have the same composition. Earthgrains further argues that the sale of D’ltaliano bread before the critical date anticipates the ’355 patent, regardless whether all of the advantages of the ascorbic acid and vinegar combination were understood at that time.

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Related

Yoon Ja Kim v. Earthgrains Co.
451 F. App'x 922 (Federal Circuit, 2011)
Yoon Ja Kim v. Earthgrains Co.
766 F. Supp. 2d 866 (N.D. Illinois, 2011)
Yoon Ja Kim v. Conagra Foods, Inc.
465 F.3d 1312 (Federal Circuit, 2006)

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