On Nov. 1, 2018, the Federal Circuit held that a catalog disseminated at an action-sports vehicle trade show is prior art. GoPro, Inc. v. Contour IP Holding, LLC, No. 2017-1894, -1936 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 1, 2018). GoPro filed IPR petition challenging the validity of Contour IP Holding LLC's patents directed to action sport video cameras or camcorders. GoPro relied on a 2009 GoPro sales catalog as prior art in its petition and challenged the validity on obviousness grounds. The Board instituted the petition. Contour argued that the catalog was not a prior art printed publication because the 2009 trade show in which GoPro gave them to the vendors at the show was not open to the public. The Board issued its final written decision finding that the catalog was not prior art since it was not made available to the extent that persons interested in the subject matter and exercising reasonable diligence could've located it.
In reversing the Board's decision, the Federal Circuit reasoned that the standard for public accessibility is one of "reasonable diligence" to locate the information by "interested members of the relevant public." Because the dealer show was attended by actual and potential dealers, retailers and customers of action video cameras, the catalog was disseminated with no restrictions and was intended to reach the general public.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
In reversing the Board's decision, the Federal Circuit reasoned that the standard for public accessibility is one of "reasonable diligence" to locate the information by "interested members of the relevant public." Because the dealer show was attended by actual and potential dealers, retailers and customers of action video cameras, the catalog was disseminated with no restrictions and was intended to reach the general public.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
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