In ClearValue, the claim at issue was directed to a process of clarifying water with alkalinity below 50 ppm, whereas the prior art taught that the same process works for systems with alkalinity of 150 ppm or less. In holding the claim anticipated, the court observed that “there is no allegation of criticality or any evidence demonstrating any difference across the range.” Id. at 1345, 101 USPQ2d at 1777. In Atofina, the court held that a reference temperature range of 100-500 degrees C did not describe the claimed range of 330-450 degrees C with sufficient specificity to be anticipatory, even though there was a slight overlap between the reference’s preferred range (150-350 degrees C) and the claimed range. “[T]he disclosure of a range is no more a disclosure of the end points of the range than it is each of the intermediate points.” Id. at 1000, 78 USPQ2d at 1424. Patentee described claimed temperature range as “critical” to enable the process to operate effectively, and showed that one of ordinary skill would have expected the synthesis process to operate differently outside the claimed range.
U.S. Patent No. 6,120,690 (“the ’690 patent”) is directed to a process for clarifying water with alkalinity below 50 ppm using a combination of a high-molecular-weight polymer and an aluminum polymer. ClearValue alleged that Pearl River indirectly infringed the ’690 patent by selling high-molecular-weight polymers, which customers used with aluminum polymers to clarify low alkalinity water. ClearValue also alleged that Pearl River misappropriated a trade secret covering a water-clarification process like that of claim 1.
判決：
JP 51-82206 discloses a preferred temperature range of 150 to 350 ºC that slightly overlaps the temperature range claimed in the ’514 patent. But that slightly overlapping range is not disclosed as such, i.e., as a species of the claimed generic range of 330 to 450 ºC. Moreover, the disclosure of a range of 150 to 350 ºC does not constitute a specific disclosure of the endpoints of that range, i.e., 150 ºC and 350 ºC, as Great Lakes asserts. The disclosure is only that of a range, not a specific temperature in that range, and the disclosure of a range is no more a disclosure of the end points of the range than it is of each of the intermediate points. Thus, JP 51-82206 does not disclose a specific embodiment of the claimed temperature range.
