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ARTICLE · 08 OCTOBER 2015

Claims Obvious Despite Contrary Jury Verdict

Addressing the issue of obviousness, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the jury verdict of non-obviousness and focusing on the nature of the problem to be solved, concluded that the asserted claims were invalid as obvious.

United StatesIntellectual Property

ABT Systems, LLC v. Emerson Electric Co.

Addressing the issue of obviousness, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the jury verdict of non-obviousness and focusing on the nature of the problem to be solved, concluded that the asserted claims were invalid as obvious. ABT Systems, LLC v. Emerson Electric Co., Case Nos. 14-1618; -1700 (Fed. Cir., Aug. 19, 2015) (Schall, J.).

The University of Central Florida owned a patent directed to an air conditioning system with a recycle control function where the fan is periodically operated a certain time after the system is deactivated. The inventor's company, ABT Systems, was a licensee. Together they sued Emerson Electric for infringement based on the "Comfort Circulating Fan Feature" of Emerson's Big Blue thermostat product.

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