BASF Polymer Manufacturing Patent May Be Valid
Written April 13, 2020
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 8, 2020, held that a patent covering a process for preparing polymers was wrongly found invalid based on another company’s earlier use of a similar process that may have been confidential. BASF Corp. v. SNF Holding Co., Fed. Cir., No. 19-1243, 4/8/20.
BASF owns US Patent No. 5,633,329, covering an “improved process for preparing high-molecular-weight polymers,” which are used as “super-absorbers” in fields like waste treatment, paper manufacturing, and mining.
BASF sued SNF Holding Co. for infringing the patent. SNF argued the relevant parts of the patent were invalid because the invention was previously “known or used” by others under pre-AIA patent law and based on the public-use and on-sale bars.
The Federal Circuit found that the district court was wrong to find the invention was already “known or used” because the process in question was subject to a confidentiality agreement and may not have been publicly accessible.