Applied Materials Loses Four Appeals
| September 2, 2010
On Tuesday the PTO Board affirmed the obviousness rejections of four Applied Materials patents related to chemical-mechanical polishing of substrates.
The four appeals raised quite similar issues. The decisions are significant in that they show the difficulties faced by a patentee in reexamination attempting to overcome a prima facie case of obviousness with a showing of commercial success. As is common with such attempts, the Board found a lack of nexus between the claimed invention and the asserted success.