Case: Patents/Obviousness (P.T.A.B.)

Challenged claims of Woodway USA Inc.’s patent that discloses a manually-powered treadmill are unpatentable as obvious over prior art, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said, in an inter partes review by LifeCore Fitness LLC. The board determined that the challenged claims are obvious over prior art that discloses a novel curved deck treadmill which provides a structurally supported movable exercise surface, that discloses a walker apparatus with left and right foot belts, and that describes basic mechanical clutches, including a cam and roller clutch. And the board denied in part and dismissed in part Woodway’s motion to exclude.
This ...