Shaw Industries Group, Inc. v. Automated Creel Systems,
Inc.
In a final written decision for two consolidated inter partes
review (IPR) proceedings, the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB, the Board) ruled
that some of the challenged claims were patentable and some were
unpatentable, finding that two proposed reference combinations did
not render obvious certain of the claims because a person having
ordinary skill in the art would not have been motivated to combine
the references. Shaw Industries Group, Inc. v. Automated
Creel Systems, Inc., Case Nos. IPR2013-00132 and IPR2013-00584
(PTAB, July 24, 2014) (Arbes, APJ).
The patent at issue is directed to a system for providing an
uninterrupted stream of stranded material such as yarn to a machine
for subsequent processing. Specifically, the patent describes
a mechanism for providing a "pre-configured supply of
materials, carried on movable carts, or cartridges" for
loading onto
