Federal Circuit: Prior Disclosure Is Not Necessarily Prior Art

Dynamic Drinkware v. National Graphics

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board), finding that an IPR petitioner failed to meet its burden of proving that a cited prior art U.S. patent reference was entitled to its (earlier) provisional application's priority date as its effective prior art date. Dynamic Drinkware v. National Graphics, Case No. 15-1214 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 4, 2015) (Lourie, J.).

The challenged patent had an effective filing date of November 22, 2000. The patent claimed priority to a provisional application filed in June of 2000. The owner of the challenged patent established that the inventor had completed the invention and reduced it to practice as of March 2000.