Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics, Inc. v. Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.

Issue: (1) Whether the Patent and Trademark Office’s (“PTO”) presumptively valid finding that an invention is not obvious and is thus patentable over a prior art patent is impermissibly nullified or undermined when a jury is allowed to find, by a mere preponderance of the evidence, that the patented invention is “insubstantially different” from the very same prior art patent, and thus infringes that prior art patent under the “doctrine of equivalents”; and (2) whether, as the dissent below warned, the Federal Circuit’s failure to impose a heightened evidentiary standard to ensure that juries do not use the doctrine of equivalents to override the PTO’s presumptively valid non-obvious determinations undermines the reasonable reliance of competitors and investors on such PTO determinations, thereby intolerably increasing uncertainty over claim scope, fostering litigation, “deter[ring] innovation and hamper[ing] legitimate competition.” Dyk, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc.

Briefs and Documents

Certiorari-stage documents

• Opinion below (Fed. Cir.)
• Petition for certiorari
• Brief in opposition
• Reply of petitioner
• Supplemental brief of petitioner