Prior Art is "Analogous" When It Is Reasonably
Pertinent To The Inventor's Particular Problem.
Scientific Plastic Products, Inc., v. Biotage Ab, No.
2013-1219, 2013-1220, 2013-1221, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 17461 (Fed.
Cir. September 10, 2014) (Newman, J.). Click Here for a copy of the opinion.
Scientific Plastic sued Biotage for infringing three patents
relating to a resealable cartridge for low pressure liquid
chromatography (LPLC). Biotage requested inter partes
reexamination and the litigation was stayed. The Patent Office
cancelled all of the claims of all three patents as obvious and
unpatentable, and the Federal Circuit affirmed. The primary issue
on reexamination concerned the obviousness of combining the LPLC
cartridge shown in the Yamada reference with the pressure-resistant
caps of King or Strassheimer, deemed "analogous art" by
the patent examiner.