Court Faults Patent Office Obviousness Logic in Polaris ATV Fight

Some of Polaris Industries Inc.’s all-terrain vehicle patent claims were wrongfully invalidated in a challenge by Arctic Cat Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said today.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the PTO body that decides validity challenges, said the claims were obvious in light of a combination of two earlier patents, but its reasoning had no basis in caselaw, the court said.

One of the earlier patents, which the court called “Denney” after the inventor, described an ATV frame with a low center of gravity. The other, the Furuhashi patent, described a buggy with ...