Board Claim Construction During Reexamination May be Broad but Not Unreasonably Broad

Judges: Rader (author), Prost, Moore
[Appealed from Board]

In In re Suitco Surface, Inc., No. 09-1418 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 14, 2010), the Federal Circuit vacated-in-part, affirmed-in-part, and remanded the Board's rejection of certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 4,944,514 ("the '514 patent") as anticipated because the Federal Circuit found the Board's construction of "material for finishing the top surface of a floor" unreasonable. Substantial evidence, however, supported the Board's finding with respect to a second claim limitation.

Suitco Surface, Inc. ("Suitco") owns the '514 patent, which is directed to an improved "floor finishing material." A representative claim, claim 4, recites "an improved material for finishing [a] top surface of [a] floor," which includes, among other things, "at least one elongated sheet including a uniform flexible film of clear plastic material" and "a continuous layer of adhesive material." In 1996, in an infringement suit against 3M