Holding on Disclosure of Line of Reasonsing is Strictly Obiter

Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Limitée v. Eurocopter 2013 FCA 261 Mainville JA: Noël, Trudel JJA refusing a motion for reconsideration of 2013 FCA 219

2,207,787

In previous litigation in this action, Eurocopter’s claims to helicopter landing gear with a forward offset front cross-piece had been held to be valid and infringed, but Claim 16, to landing gear with a backward offset front cross-piece, had been held invalid for lack of utility. In this motion under Rule 397, which permits reconsideration when “(a) the order does not accord with any reasons given for it; or (b) a matter that should have been dealt with has been overlooked or accidentally omitted,” Eurocopter has asked the FCA to modify two paragraphs of its reasons ([157]-[158]), in a way that Eurocopter apparently hoped would have the effect of reversing the judgment with respect to Claim 16, rendering that claim valid [4]. The FCA rejected this motion on the basis that (1), Rule 397 cannot be used to re-argue an issue [15]; (2) the paragraphs in question were not inadvertent and indeed were not incorrect [16]-[17]; and (3) the motion was pointless as even if the paragraphs in question were “corrected,” Claim 16 would still be invalid.

This last point is of some general interest. As I discussed in a post on the original FCA decision, the FCA held that the line of reasoning supporting sound prediction must be disclosed in the patent. If the decision has been amended as sought by Eurocopter, it would have held that the line of reasoning was indeed disclosed in the patent [4]. But the FCA noted that this would not have saved the claim, because Bell had brought evidence that the backward offset embodiment lacked utility, and “It would therefore have still been incumbent on Eurocopter to rebut that evidence through its own evidence of testing or through calculations supporting a sound line of reasoning for that embodiment at the time the `787 Patent was applied for. Eurocopter failed to do so. As a result, its cross-appeal would still fail” [18]. In other words, the FCA has recognized that its holding that the line of reasoning must be disclosed in the patent was obiter, because the more fundamental problem is that Eurocopter had not supplied any evidence of utility, whether in the patent or not. This is significant, as there is some suggestion of a disagreement at the FCA as to whether the heightened disclosure requirement in respect of sound prediction is sound, and to the extent that the holding in Eurocopter affirming this doctrine is obiter, it has less weight than if it were determinative. That is, it would be possible for a subsequent decision of the FCA to distinguish Eurocopter on this point as being obiter. With that said, there obiter, and there is obiter; while the Eurocopter panel of the FCA has acknowledged that its holding on this point was strictly obiter, it was clearly thoroughly considered, and so will not be lightly distinguished or ignored.