November 11, 2016

Federal Circuit Weighs in on Evidentiary Challenge in IPR, Reversing PTAB

More often than not, evidentiary issues in IPR proceedings fail to make headlines because the Board will structure its Final Written Decision to avoid evidentiary challenges. Findings that a party’s motion to exclude is denied as moot are common. That makes the Federal Circuit’s decision in REG Synthetic Fuels, LLC v. Neste Oil Oyj (November 8, 2016) all the more interesting.  In that decision, the Court reversed the Board’s decision to exclude certain evidence submitted by Patent Owner during the trial.

More specifically, Patent Owner sought to swear behind one of the prior art references presented in the Petition. Among the evidence provided for this purpose was test data from third parties, communications between the inventor and third parties, and minutes from a meeting that the inventor had attended. Id. at 5. Petitioner moved to exclude this evidence on the basis of lack of authentication, hearsay, or as improper reply evidence. The Board granted the motion to exclude.

On appeal, the Court first clarified that priority issues, including conception and reduction to practice, are questions of law predicated on subsidiary factual findings. Id. at 6. The Court addressed the Board’s finding that two emails between the inventor and a third party (Exhibit 2061 in the case) provided necessary corroboration of the patented invention. Id. at 16. Petitioner argued that the emails were hearsay because they contain out of court statements by a third party. Patent Owner responded by arguing that it did not offer the emails to prove the truth of the matter asserted. The Court agreed with Patent Owner, finding that the emails were offered for the non-hearsay purpose to show that the inventor thought he had achieved a quality claimed in the patent-at-issue. “The act of writing and sending the email is, by itself, probative evidence on whether [the inventor] recognized — at the time that he had written the email —” the claimed property. Id. at 17. In short, the exhibit was legally significant because it showed that the inventor communicated the conception of the invention to the third party.