HENNY PENNY CORPORATION v. FRYMASTER LLC
- Sep 12 2019 |
- Category: CAFC Updates
Henny Penny appeals from the inter partes review decision of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board holding certain claims of U.S. Patent 8,497,691 (relating to a system for measuring the state of cooking oil degradation in a deep fryer with a TPM sensor) not unpatentable as obvious. Henny Penny argues that the Board procedurally erred by too narrowly construing the petition, but the CAFC concludes that the Board did not abuse its discretion in disregarding Henny Penny’s entirely new rationale for why a claim would have been obvious first raised in reply. Henny Penny also argues that the Board erred in its conclusion of non-obviousness because 1) the Board mistakenly found no motivation to combine the prior art, and 2) the Board erred in finding Frymaster’s evidence of industry praise to be probative of non-obviousness. Considering the prior art as a whole, the CAFC concludes that substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding of no motivation to combine, and that the Board did not err in giving some weight to the industry praise of Frymaster’s deep fryer product. Accordingly, the CAFC affirms.