Experience
Equistar Chemicals, LP
ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc.
Finnegan client Equistar Chemicals, LP, successfully challenged through inter partes review (IPR) all claims in a patent owned by ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc., directed to an apparatus and process of manufacturing polyethylene in high-pressure tubular reactor. Equistar established that the claimed apparatus and process would have been obvious, with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) adopting Equistar’s position that a person of ordinary skill would have been motivated to achieve a high capacity reactor with a reasonable expectation of success. In reaching its decision, the Board further agreed with Equistar that ExxonMobil’s claimed reactor variables were obvious from the overlapping ranges taught in the prior art. The Board rejected ExxonMobil’s argument that unexpected results demonstrated non-obviousness of the claims because ExxonMobil, at best, asserted its subjective belief that the desired benefits could be achieved but failed to provide objective evidence to establish unexpected results.
Equistar Chemicals, LP v. ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc., IPR2017-01534, PTAB, Judges Abraham, Roesel, Tornquist
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