Reversal of a $30 million judgment against NOVA’s plastics line

The Federal Circuit handed Finnegan client NOVA Chemicals a victory on appeal, finding Dow Chemical’s patent claims to be invalid. In a prior appeal, the Federal Circuit held that NOVA had infringed Dow’s ethylene polymer patent claims and that NOVA had not established that those claims were invalid for indefiniteness. In a subsequent appeal concerning the district court’s award of supplemental damages, the Federal Circuit held that an intervening Nautilus decision by the Supreme Court had changed the law of indefiniteness and that the prior panel had applied a test for indefiniteness that had been repudiated by the Supreme Court. Finding that Dow’s patent claims were indefinite under the correct test, the Federal Circuit reversed a $30 million supplemental damage award and dismissed Dow’s cross-appeal for enhanced damages as moot.