`________________________
`
`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`________________________
`
`GRACO CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS, INC.,
`Petitioner.
`
`v.
`
`KOLCRAFT ENTERPRISES, INC.,
`Patent Owner.
`________________________
`
`Case IPR2016-00816 (Patent D604,970 S)
`Case IPR2016-00826 (Patent D616,231 S)
`_________________________
`
`Record of Oral Hearing
`Held: July 6, 2017
`_________________________
`
`
`
`Before: KEN B. BARRETT, JOSIAH C. COCKS, and JENNIFER S.
`BISK, Administrative Patent Judges.
`
`
`
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`Case IPR2016-00816 (Patent D604,970 S)
`Case IPR2016-00826 (Patent D616,231 S)
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`A P P E A R A N C E S:
`
`ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONER:
` JOHN W. HARBIN, ESQUIRE
` MEUNIER, CARLIN & CURFMAN, LLC
` 999 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 1300
` Atlanta, Georgia 30309
` (678) 771-7787
` WALTER TREY LEVIE, ESQUIRE
` MEUNIER, CARLIN & CURFMAN, LLC
` 999 Peachtreet Street, NE, Suite 1300
` Atlanta, Georgia 30309
` (404) 645-7728
` GREGORY J. CARLIN, ESQUIRE
` MEUNIER, CARLIN & CURFMAN, LLC
` 999 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 1300
` Atlanta, Georgia 30309
` (404) 645-7705
`
`ON BEHALF OF THE PATENT OWNER:
` RAYMOND P. NIRO, JR., ESQUIRE
` NIRO, MCANDREWS, DOWELL & GROSSMAN, LLC
` 200 West Madison Street, Suite 2040
` Chicago, Illinois 60606
` (312) 755-8576
` BRIAN P. LYNCH, PH.D.
` NIRO, MCANDREWS, DOWELL & GROSSMAN, LLC
` 200 West Madison Street, Suite 2040
` Chicago, Illinois 60606
` (312) 755-8581
`
`
`The above-entitled matter came on for hearing on Thursday, July 6,
`2017, commencing at 9:00 a.m., at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 600
`Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314.
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`P R O C E E D I N G S
` JUDGE BARRETT: Good morning, everybody. We are on
`the record in IPR2016-00816 and IPR2016-00826, Graco
`Children's Products v. Kolcraft Enterprises.
` I'm Judge Barrett. Next to me on the bench are
`Judge Bisk and Judge Cocks. And let's start with the
`appearances. Who do we have from Petitioner?
` MR. HARBIN: John Harbin, Your Honors, with
`Meunier, Carlin & Curfman. With me is Trey Levie and Greg
`Carlin, also with the firm. Thank you.
` MR. NIRO: Good morning, Your Honors.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Good morning.
` MR. NIRO: Raymond Niro, Jr., of Niro McAndrews, on
`behalf of the respondent, and with me is Brian Lynch, also of
`Niro McAndrews.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Thank you, Counsel.
` MR. NIRO: Thank you.
` JUDGE BARRETT: All right, we set forth procedure
`for today's trial hearing in our trial order, but I'll go over
`it quickly.
` Each party will have 45 minutes total time. For
`clarity of the transcript, when you refer to any exhibit or
`demonstrative, please clearly indicate for the record the page
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`numbers or the demonstrative numbers.
` Petitioner has the ultimate burden, will go first,
`and you may reserve time for rebuttal. Patent Owner will then
`have an opportunity to present its response, and then
`Petitioner may use any rebuttal time remaining.
` I'll give each counsel a warning when you're
`reaching the end of your time.
` As a reminder, no new evidence or arguments may be
`presented at the oral argument, and in reaching our final
`decision, we will not consider any new arguments or evidence.
` Any questions or concerns?
` MR. HARBIN: Your Honor, we do have a question or
`two, as a preliminary matter.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Okay.
` MR. HARBIN: First, the Patent Owner filed,
`yesterday, a motion to seal. I don't know if the Board will
`set a briefing schedule for that or want us to address it
`today or what Your Honors' preference is.
` We have a motion pending because of their Patent
`Owner designation of documents confidential. We're not
`continuing confidential, but then they filed this motion
`yesterday.
` And the second issue that raises is they filed
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`with -- they're seeking, apparently, to introduce an exhibit
`that's not in the record at this point. We don't object, for
`the record, to this specific exhibit, but if there are other
`documents -- other evidence that Patent Owner tries to
`introduce that's not in the record, we would object.
` So we were wondering how the Board wants to handle
`objections.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Let's not interrupt with
`objections. Please hold it till you have another opportunity
`to speak. And if it -- if you don't have another opportunity,
`then flag it at the end, and we'll come back to it.
` Let's -- I did want to discuss the motion to seal,
`but let's hold that till the end. And in particular, I was
`thinking of your earlier motion to seal.
` So just to be clear, Petitioner has no objection to
`the new -- what I believe is identified as an unredacted
`version of Exhibit 2008?
` MR. HARBIN: That's correct, Your Honor.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Thank you.
` MR. NIRO: And for the record, Your Honor, that
`exhibit is -- been submitted as 1017. It just wasn't filed.
` The Petitioner references Exhibit 1017, and it's
`designated on their list of exhibits in their reply brief,
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`they just didn't file that document. And for the -- Your
`Honors' conveniences, we filed it.
` It's the unredacted declaration with the dates
`included, which I understand Petitioner does not object to,
`nor, really, could they. They've had the document for several
`months.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Okay. Thank you.
` JUDGE COCKS: Mr. Harbin, I have one question for
`you.
` MR. HARBIN: Yes, Your Honor?
` JUDGE COCKS: You mentioned a briefing schedule for
`the motion to seal. Do I understand that you're opposing the
`motion to seal?
` MR. HARBIN: Yes. We would oppose that motion,
`Your Honor.
` JUDGE BARRETT: You may proceed when you're ready.
` MR. HARBIN: Thank you, Your Honors. Again John
`Harbin, with Meunier, Carlton & Curfman, for the Petitioner,
`Graco Children's Products, Inc.
` We're here to talk about the single-instituted
`ground: Whether the claim of each of the two design patents
`is obvious over the Chen reference, design patent 494,393.
` Our principal discussion points are -- and by the
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`way, You Honor, I apologize, Your Honor, I'll plan on speaking
`principally -- initially 30 minutes and reserving 15 minutes
`for rebuttal. If we go over a little bit, I'll adjust
`accordingly.
` But our principal points are the claimed designs
`are obvious over Chen, and Kolcraft has not contested that.
`Kolcraft relies on argument that the invention claim predates
`the Chen reference. We submit Kolcraft has not met their
`burden, even of production, to antedate Chen.
` And second, looking at the details, Kolcraft has
`not shown conception or reduction to practice before the
`filing date of Chen, which is January 7, 2014. And to the --
`Kolcraft makes an alternative argument that a subsequent
`exhibit -- we'll get to -- that is by their contention dated
`late-January 2004, after Chen, represents reduction to
`practice.
` We submit -- we disagree with that, but we also
`submit that Kolcraft has utterly failed to prove diligence
`during the required period, as we'll talk about.
` First point is Kolcraft does not contest the
`obviousness of the claimed designs over Chen. They focus on
`antedating the reference. I want to talk a little bit about
`-- just briefly review legal principles that we think are key
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`here.
` First, an antedated invention. A party must show
`either an earlier reduction to practice or an earlier
`conception, followed by a diligent reduction to practice.
` In regard to conception, Your Honors, to have
`conceived of an invention, an inventor must have formed, in
`his or her mind, a definite permanent idea of the complete and
`operative invention as it is hereafter to be applied in
`practice.
` The conception by an inventor for the purpose of
`establishing priority cannot be proved by his or her mere
`allegation, nor by his or her unsupported testimony when there
`has been no disclosure to others or embodiment of the
`invention in some clearly-perceptible form, such as drawings
`or model, with sufficient proof of identity and point of time.
` And that applies when there are, as here, two
`inventors who cannot corroborate each other's testimony or
`evidence, and corroboration is required in inter partes
`review.
` Regarding reduction to practice, reduction to
`practice of a three-dimensional design invention requires the
`production of an article embodying the design.
` And to establish reduction to practice, the
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`inventor must prove he or she made an embodiment of the
`invention and met all the limitations, and that he or she
`determined that the invention would work for its intended
`purpose.
` And again, like conception, there is a
`corroboration requirement that applies to inventor testimony
`to prove reduction to practice. In regard to diligence in
`reducing to practice, to establish diligence, the basic
`inquiry is whether there was a reasonably continuing activity
`to reduce the invention to practice under the Tyco case.
` The Mahurkar case we cited speaks in terms of there
`substantially -- there needs to be substantially one
`continuing activity.
` And most importantly, a party alleging diligence --
`here, Kolcraft -- must provide, number one, corroboration. So
`the requirement of corroboration exists with the element of
`proving diligence as well as conception and reduction to
`practice. And they must provide corroboration with evidence
`that is specific both as to facts and dates.
` And we think we will show that Kolcraft has not
`even really attempted to provide any evidence of diligence
`that is corroborated, much less evidence that is specific as
`to facts and dates.
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` So we submit Kolcraft has not met its burden of
`production to shift the burden back to Graco, but if you find
`the burden has shifted back, we submit the evidence --
`Kolcraft's declarations and the exhibits -- fail to prove
`identity of the claimed design. We'll talk about that in more
`detail with the exhibits, beginning with the 131 declaration.
` They filed it with, you know, a very general
`declaration with even dates blank. They are now offering this
`exhibit to fill in the dates they attribute to each of the
`exhibits that they have introduced. They have not provided
`corroboration of the record to support the inventor's
`testimony that these exhibits were created on those dates.
` But more importantly, the rest of the declaration
`is very terse and very general about what happened. For
`example, Kolcraft never identifies either the dates of
`conception or reduction to practice in the declaration. The
`exhibits attached are never explained in the declaration or
`compared to the claimed design. Kolcraft never shows how the
`inventors formed, in their minds, a definite and permanent
`idea of the complete --
` JUDGE COCKS: Counsel, as far as your first bullet
`point, is that still true given the filing from yesterday?
` MR. HARBIN: Yes, Your Honor.
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` All that does is identify the dates they say each
`of the exhibits was created. It gives a -- instead of just
`saying it was before January 7th, which is what the redacted
`declaration said, it just gives the dates they were created.
` The inventors never say, I conceived of it on this
`date. I reduced it to practice on this date. That's never
`offered in the declaration.
` In regard to corroboration of the testimony --
`really, the entire consideration of their testimony as well --
`it's important that the Board focus not on the similarity of
`general design concepts, but focus on the specific design
`characteristics claimed.
` A design is a unitary thing, and all of its
`portions are material in that they contribute to the
`appearance of what constitutes the design. We submit that
`Kolcraft violates these principles, because they want to talk
`about the general, it's a bowed leg.
` Well, that's not enough. That's a general design
`concept. The two patents at issue, the '970 and the '231
`design patents, are and have to be more detailed and specific
`than that.
` So talking about the exhibits, we submit again they
`will show neither conception nor reduction to practice of what
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`is actually claimed in the two design patents. Exhibits A to
`D contain sketches or images of play yards, and as a matter of
`law therefore, they cannot constitute proof of reduction to
`practice, because you have to, again, create a physical
`embodiment.
` Exhibits E to H also do not show conception or
`reduction to practice. Many of them -- they're not -- none of
`them are complete, and they do not show what is actually
`claimed in the design code.
` And when we get at the end, Kolcraft does not
`provide adequate evidence to demonstrate diligence to a
`reduction to practice.
` Beginning with Exhibit A, this is the first drawing
`they have presented of a general idea of the play yard. On
`the left, it does not show a definite and permanent idea,
`because there are major differences between the legs depicted
`in Exhibit A and the figures of the '970 and '231 patent.
` This is Slide 14, and we depict here Figure 1 of
`each of the patents. And again, this is just a sketch, so it
`cannot constitute reduction to practice.
` One of the two inventors, Mr. Bretschger, Slide 15,
`testified at page 76, lines 8 to 22 of his deposition, that
`the drawings alleged in Exhibit A are bowed -- are not bowed
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`like the legs in the figures of the '231 and '970 patents.
`It's a different bow or curve.
` He also testified -- this is Slide 16, referring to
`page 48, lines -- excuse me, 48, line 24 -- must be 49, line 8
`of his deposition that he testified that the legs shown in the
`drawing, Exhibit A, taper toward each other toward the top,
`that they're closer together at the top than at the bottom of
`the legs. And you can see that, again, looking back at Slide
`14, Exhibit A.
` And that does not appear -- that is different than
`what appears, as Mr. Bretschger admitted, in the two figures
`in Figure 1 of each of the '970 and '231 design patents.
` The other inventor, Mr. Troutman, agreed that the
`design of the legs shown in Exhibit A is not the same as the
`legs shown in the '231 and '970 patents. He said they are
`similar, but there are significant differences.
` He agreed that it appears that at least the legs on
`each side of the short end of the -- each short side of the
`Exhibit A play yard bend toward each other closer at the top
`than the bottom and that the figures in the '970 patent and
`the '231 patent do not depict that.
` Going back to Slide 18, Mr. Troutman agreed -- this
`is pages -- Exhibit 1025, page 59, lines 2 to 10 of his
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`deposition -- he agreed that the legs in Exhibit A are thicker
`than the legs in the '231 and '970 patents.
` And this is Slide 19, referring to page 57, lines 8
`to 10 of Mr. Troutman's deposition. He testified the legs in
`Exhibit A are covered by fabric, and the patents claim exposed
`legs.
` And Kolcraft has contended -- and in the
`institution decision the Board agreed -- that exposed legs is
`a significant factor in differentiation.
` Later in his deposition, Mr. Troutman tried to say,
`well, he was talking about a mesh cover, but this was his
`testimony here.
` Exhibit B to F -- and I can refer to any of these
`if Your Honors wish; I have them in an appendix -- but
`Exhibits B to F also show mere general design concepts. The
`inventors continue to modify the shapes of the legs, resulting
`in legs with different distinct visual impressions.
` Exhibits B to D, which are earlier than Exhibits E
`to F, show legs, in turn, that are substantially different
`than what is shown in Exhibits E to F, which show legs that
`are substantially oval in cross-section.
` Mr. Troutman -- this is Exhibit -- excuse me, Slide
`21 in this regard, page 75, line 24, to page 76, line 6 --
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`testified he could not tell from Exhibit B whether the legs in
`Exhibit B are oval or circular in cross-section, but they're
`clearly not the substantial oval that appears later and that
`Mr. Bretschger testified what they were aiming for.
` This is Slide 22, referring to Mr. Bretschger's
`depo, Exhibit 1024, page 58, lines 15 to 21. Mr. Bretschger
`testified their intention from the beginning was to have
`oval-shaped legs, but they didn't know what shape they wanted.
` JUDGE BARRETT: Counsellor, what shape do you
`contend are the claimed -- the legs of the claimed design?
` MR. HARBIN: Well, it's interesting, Your Honor.
`If we -- and I can put up a bigger version on the -- I don't
`know if we need to, but if you go back to Slide 14, what is
`significant to us is a couple of things.
` Number one, there's no shading between the solid
`lines in the legs in either patent, either the '970 or the
`'231 patent. We contend, our expert testified, and
`Mr. Troutman agreed at deposition that shading generally
`indicates curvature -- the substance, the curvature.
` Here there's an absence of shading, so you don't
`know if the legs are generally cylindrical. They could be --
`from what the limited depictions are, they could be generally
`square or some other shape.
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` But what we do see is, with one exception, the legs
`appear to be generally the same width for the length of the
`leg. The exception is if you look at the top figure, which is
`Figure 1 of the '970 patent, it appears to us that the leg on
`the right side, far right, is narrower than the leg on the
`left side.
` And from this perspective, the leg on the right
`side should be -- is closer to the viewer than the leg on the
`left side, yet it appears to be narrower. So that's
`inexplicable to us. But in general, the legs appear to be
`generally the same width.
` So they're clearly not -- what they're clearly not
`is substantially oval, which is what the design work that
`Kolcraft is relying on was aiming at. As we talked about and
`viewed Mr. Bretschger testimony, we'll see even more clearly
`in these later exhibits, that I believe is the ones they're
`relying on for conception and reduction to practice, the legs
`are substantially oval in cross-section.
` And this is Exhibit G, which the inventor,
`Mr. Troutman, testified is his instructions on this early
`prototype, which Kolcraft has attributed a date to this. They
`claim this was created December 12, 2003. They put no
`evidence in the record to corroborate that date or any of the
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`earlier dates we'll go over later.
` What's significant about this -- now, this does not
`illustrate the shape of the legs cross-section. It does not
`show all views, but it is clear that the legs appear to be
`substantially oval, and that's what they were intending.
` What they did -- you see, we blew up Step 8 here.
`And this is Slide 23 referring to Exhibit 2008, which is
`Exhibit G. We blew up Step 8.
` It talks about the cover. The cover is what --
`they testified the foam caps they put over tubular legs
`underneath that, to reflect, as it says, we desire an oval
`tube for the legs. So they're to depict what the intended
`appearance is going to be.
` So we submit Exhibit G does not show an article
`embodying all the limitations of the actual design patents,
`because the legs are very different. Moreover, we submit it's
`our understanding that Kolcraft is contending this is the
`first reduction to practice. We submit that it is not.
` First, for the reason that it doesn't actually
`reduce to practice what is shown in the design patents.
`Second, it is not a complete article embodying -- even if you
`disregard that -- embodying the invention.
` This is another page of Exhibit G, the
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`instructions, where it says, this is a prototype not intended
`for production. Very fragile. Needs to be reinforced to
`stand up. They refer to guidewires and foot material and the
`solid floor they're using. They're not intended for
`production.
` JUDGE BARRETT: So it's your understanding then
`that reduction to practice of a design patent requires a
`production-ready embodiment?
` MR. HARBIN: Not necessarily a production-ready,
`but it needs to be closer than what this is.
` JUDGE COCKS: Well, Counsel, what are you asking us
`to infer from the highlighted portions there? It's not
`intended for production, but that is not necessarily a
`requirement. And very fragile, what should I take from that?
` MR. HARBIN: It's the degree of which this was not
`intended for production. They weren't -- even if you
`disregard the differences between the legs shown in Exhibit G
`and the patents, it's not an actual reduction to practice yet.
` They also -- they didn't have a way to attach the
`legs. Here's Mr. Bretschger -- we're looking at Slide 25 now,
`which is Bretschger's deposition, Exhibit 1024, page 67, lines
`3 to 8.
` Mr. Bretschger said -- he's referring to Exhibit G
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`in this testimony -- they -- it's referring him to that quote
`on the page, that Step 8 we were talking about:
` We desire an oval tube for the legs, but you hadn't
`figured out how to accomplish having oval tubes for the legs?
` And he said, yes. So it needs to be something that
`is an actual prototype fit for the purpose intended. They
`don't have that here. They actually -- what they did is they
`wrapped mesh around the legs, so the legs were covered with
`the mesh, and then taped them on in this stage.
` The last exhibit that the Patent Owner relies on is
`this Exhibit H, which is a group of five photographs. Again,
`the Patent Owner -- the inventors claim that these photographs
`were created from January 26 to 30, 2004. That is after,
`roughly two to three weeks after, the filing of the Chen
`reference, which is January 7, 2004.
` These do not show, again, either a complete
`conception or reduction to practice. This does not have all
`the views shown in the patent.
` Moreover, again, what you can see is the legs
`appear to be, as they intended, substantially oval. So the
`proportions of the legs do no correspond to those shown in the
`patents.
` So we submit even that's not either a conception or
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`reduction to practice. But if the Board finds there was a
`conception and that this Exhibit H, which postdates Chen,
`constitutes a reduction to practice, Kolcraft, the Patent
`Owner, has not proven diligence between -- you know, prior to
`the date of Chen through the date of conception of those
`photographs.
` Kolcraft relies on the inventors' testimony to
`prove diligence, which, as a matter of law, is insufficient.
`More -- equally important, even the testimony they have is
`void of any specific facts as to what happened in the interim,
`or the dates it happened. There's no detail at all in Patent
`Owner's response or in the declaration.
` Here is an example of the -- this is Slide 28 from
`Exhibit 2008, the declaration, paragraph 7 -- they just make a
`conclusory broad statement: We diligently worked on.
` Several cases have held this kind of broad general
`statement is not sufficient. We cited the Gould case, which
`the inventor's wife gave testimony. Her testimony was much
`more detailed than this.
` She said the inventor -- it was a laser device --
`the inventor, who was also going to grad school, she said
`worked three to four days a week on the invention and looked
`at books and this and that.
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` In Gould, the Court said even that was not
`sufficient. The evidence offered by Kolcraft is -- the Patent
`Owner -- does not even approach that.
` Also, it's clear that work continued on this
`prototype well after the date of these photographs,
`January 26th to 30, 2004, and Mr. Bretschger testified that
`the reduction to practice and the diligence continued after
`that date. And this is a reference -- Slide 29 is a reference
`to his testimony in Exhibit 24, page 74, lines 3 to 16.
` So I think we submit you can stop at the utter lack
`of evidence in the record in Kolcraft's response about, you
`know, supporting their general claim of exercising diligence.
` But looking beyond -- behind that, I asked one of
`the inventors, Mr. Troutman -- who was the principal one who
`worked on this invention. Mr. Bretschger was his supervisor,
`two levels up. And this is Exhibit 1025, the Troutman
`deposition, page 36, lines 5 to 10 on Slide 30.
` We're referring to two dates. The date of
`September 16, I cited that because the plaintiff -- the Patent
`Owner claims that Exhibit A, that first drawing, was created
`September 11. They claim Exhibit B was created in the period
`September 11 to 16, 2003. Again, these dates are without any
`independent corroboration in the record.
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` And then Exhibits C and D, they claim, are admitted
`October 24, 2003. And these dates are in the unredacted
`declaration they're offering now.
` So I asked Mr. Troutman, what specific work did you
`do on the play yard project between September 16 and October
`24, that roughly five-week period? He could not tell me
`anything. Looking at Slide 31, an excerpt of the Troutman
`deposition, Exhibit 1025, page 37, lines 17 to 25.
` The next exhibit, Exhibit E, the inventors claim
`was created November 25, 2003. I asked Mr. Troutman, can you
`tell me any work you did on the play yard project between that
`roughly month between October 24, the date of Exhibit C and D,
`and the November 25 date, which is Exhibit E? He could not
`tell me anything.
` I asked him -- and this is Slide 32 referring to
`his deposition at page -- Troutman's deposition, page 38,
`lines 10 to 16 -- about the period between -- roughly, you
`know, a two-week period between November 25, 2003, and
`December 12, 2003, the latter being the date they claim
`Exhibit G was created. He could not tell me anything.
` Then I asked him about the dates, the six-week
`date, between Exhibit G, which they say was December 12, 2003,
`and the paragraphs in Exhibit H, which they say were created
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`January 26 to 30, 2004, and he started testifying about work
`-- what I would have done.
` And what he says is, I would have communicated with
`the vendor to have my ideas brought to fruition. Here this is
`Slide 33 referring to -- I'm paraphrasing -- page 42, lines 10
`to 22, of Mr. Troutman's deposition.
` Then I asked him, can you identify any specific
`instructions you gave to the entity creating that prototype in
`those six weeks between December 12 and January 26, such as
`what specific change to make? He said he would just be
`speculating.
` Moreover, Your Honors, as courts have recognized,
`these days, you know, this work is documented in e-mails, et
`cetera. This vendor that was making the prototype is based in
`China. Mr. Troutman testified there were e-mails reflecting
`the work. They put none of that in the record. They had the
`opportunity to. Patent Owner had the burden to put all those
`kind of specific facts and dates, and they produced none of
`it.
` JUDGE BARRETT: You have about five more minutes of
`your original 30.
` Before you leave the podium, I'd like to get your
`thoughts on Exhibits E and F of the declaration. And
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`assuming, for the sake of argument, that the dates and there's
`corroboration, why do these exhibits not evidence a reduction
`to practice?
` MR. HARBIN: Two reasons, Your Honor.
` First, this is not a full depiction of the -- this
`is only one shot of one perspective of the frame of the play
`yard.
` Second, we think it's cr