By Kevin E. Noonan --
The inter partes review provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act have been criticized for the propensity of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to find invalid all or at least some of the challenged claims, frequently on obviousness grounds. Failure to so find, in addition to being less common has also often upheld on appeal, in view of the substantial evidence standard of review on factual questions involved in both novelty and obviousness questions before the Board. The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Recor Medical, Inc. v. Medtronic Ireland Mfg. illustrates circumstances under which the Board's obviousness determination did not pass muster.
Recor Medical and Otsuka Medical Devices Co. challenged claims 1-4 and 8-12 of Medtronic's U.S. Patent No. 8,845,629 on obviousness grounds under 35 U.S.C. § 103; the challenged claims concerned an apparatus used to disrupt or destroy renal nerves to treat diseases exemplified in the opinion as "heart failure, renal failure, and hypertension." Claim 1 was set forth in the opinion as representative:
1. An ultrasound apparatus for thermally-induced renal neuromodulation, the apparatus comprising:
a catheter sized and shaped for delivery within a blood vessel to a vicinity of neural fibers that contribute to renal function;
an ultrasound transducer carried by the catheter, wherein the ultrasound transducer is configured to transmit ultrasound energy waves to target renal neural fibers outside of the blood vessel to thermally induce modulation of target neural fibers while protecting non-target tissue in the blood vessel wall from thermal injury; and
an expandable member carried by a distal region of the catheter,
wherein the expandable member is configured to vary between a reduced configuration for delivery and retrieval and an expanded deployed configuration, and
wherein the ultrasound transducer is positioned on a shaft of the catheter and within the expandable member.
Challengers asserted U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2003/0216792 ("Levin") and U.S. Patent No. 6,669,655 ("Acker") in combination, and on other grounds based on the Acker disclosure and the knowledge of those of ordinary skill in the art. Levin was relied upon for teaching renal nerve ablation using a "catheter-based approach" combined with Acker for using an ultrasound catheter, which obviousness contention the PTAB rejected based on there being no motivation to combine these references' teachings nor it not being obvious to try using ultrasound for renal neuromodulation as claimed. The Board applied similar reasoning to Challenger's obviousness contentions based on Acker as the sole prior art reference coupled with the knowledge of the ordinarily skilled artisan. The Board issued its Final Written Decision and this appeal followed.
The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded for further consideration by the PTAB, in an opinion by Judge Prost, joined by Judges Mayer and Lourie. Challengers made two contentions before the Federal Circuit: first, that the Board erred in not considering the Acker reference for "everything it teaches," citing Belden Inc. v. Berk-Tek LLC, 805 F.3d 1064, 1073 (Fed. Cir. 2015); and second that it would not have been "obvious to try" using ultrasound for this purpose.
Regarding the first argument, the panel agreed that the Board erred for limiting its consideration of the Acker reference to pulmonary veins. The Court considered this reference to teach using ultrasound catheters to deliver the energy used in the '629 patent to "a blood vessel" or "circulatory vessel" (emphasis in opinion). This understanding of greater breadth of the Acker reference's teaching was supported by disclosure in Acker that ultrasound energy "can be used to ablate ring-like regions around other tubular anatomical structures" (which presumably could include blood vessels other than the pulmonary veins expressly disclosed in the Acker reference). Failure to consider this broader scope was error according to the panel, citing Merck & Co. v. Biocraft Labs., Inc., 874 F.2d 804, 807 (Fed. Cir. 1989). The panel further found error in a suggestion from the Board's reasoning that the art either "actually operate[d] to perform the claimed invention or that the prior art be enabled," citing Beckman Instruments, Inc. v. LKB Produkter AB, 892 F.2d 1547, 1551 (Fed. Cir. 1989), and In re Etter, 756 F.2d 852, 859 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (en banc). Under KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 421 (2007), an obviousness determination must employ an "expansive and flexible approach" in which the person of ordinary skill is "a person of ordinary creativity, not an automaton," according to the opinion, and failure to apply these principles was error requiring the Board to reconsider the challenge on remand.
With regard to Challengers' "obvious to try" contentions, the panel treated this as a question of fact for which the Board is entitled to "substantial evidence" review. The argument was taken directly from the KSR decision, wherein the Court recognized the requirements that there be "(1) a design or market need to solve a particular problem, and (2) that 'there are a finite number of identified, predictable solutions'" for which there was a reasonable expectation of success. In this case, the panel recognized that the methods in the prior art and the ultrasound energy source recited in the challenged claims of the '629 patent used thermal energy to ablate renal nerves, and that ultrasound was one of the finite number of alternatives that included "electrical, ultrasound, radiofrequency, cryogenics, microwave, laser, chemical, induction, radiation, and mechanical methods." The panel rejected Medtronic's arguments that the failure of the prior art to suggest ultrasound put the claimed method outside the scope of the "finite number of alternatives" supporting an obviousness determination, on the grounds that KSR requires a consideration of whether the skilled person "ha[d] good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp." Challengers provided "ample evidence" in that regard, according to the opinion, from the cited prior art as well as other references using catheters for renal neuromodulation that relied on other energy sources (Levin) and perhaps more persuasively, using ultrasound for neuroablation in blood vessels in other organs (Acker), as well as "DC current, AC current, radiofrequency, microwave, heating elements, light emitting elements, and ultrasound" disclosed in other prior art. This universe of alternatives was sufficiently limited to satisfy the KSR rubrics for what is "obvious to try" for this panel, citing Valeant Pharms. Int'l, Inc. v. Mylan Pharms. Inc., 955 F.3d 25, 34 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (ten variables). The Court also considered successful use of ultrasound to have been reasonably predictable, and thus that "a person of ordinary skill [would have] good reason to pursue [these] known options" under KSR.
Recor Medical, Inc. v. Medtronic Ireland Mfg. (Fed. Cir. 2025)
Nonprecedential disposition
Panel: Circuit Judges Lourie, Mayer, and Prost
Opinion by Circuit Judge Prost