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Federal Circuit Clarifies Motivation to Combine to Achieve the Claimed Invention and Holds IPR Petitioner Must Be Given Opportunity to Reply Where Patent Owner First Proposes Claim Construction In a Response
In a pair of decisions, a Federal Circuit panel of Judges Lourie, Dyk, and Taranto unanimously vacated final written decisions of the Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the "Board") relating to Medtronic Inc.'s patents, remanding in favor of patent challenger Axonics, Inc.
On July 10, 2023, in Axonics, Inc. v. Medtronic, Inc., Nos. 2022-1451 and 2022-1452, in a decision written by Judge Taranto, the panel vacated the Board's decisions that Axonics failed to prove the challenged claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 8,626,314 ('314 patent) and 8,036,756 ('756 patent) are unpatentable as obvious. Slip op. at 2.
The '314 patent is a grandchild of the '756 patent. Id. at 2. According to the '314 patent specification, the "invention relates generally to a method and apparatus that allows for stimulation of body tissue, particularly sacral nerves." Id. at 2. While the specification calls out electrical stimulation of the sacral nerves, it also "includes discussion of electrostimulation devices for other parts of the body." Id. at 2–3. Similarly, while "sacral nerve stimulation" is one "preferred embodiment," the specification also describes the "present invention" in terms that are not confined to the sacral nerves. Id. at 3. And, notably, "[n]o claim of the two patents either mentions or is limited to sacral nerves." Id. at 5.
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