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

Challenged claims of SPG Dry Cooling USA LLC’s patent for a mechanical draft cooling tower that utilizes air cooled condenser modules aren’t unpatentable as obvious over prior art, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said, in an inter partes review by Evapco Dry Cooling Inc. According to the board, the challenged claims aren‘t obvious over various combinations of prior art, including prior art that discloses an air-cooled surface condenser, that provides information to guide the development and specification of air-cooled condenser design conditions, and that describes a hybrid system that combines features of an air-cooled heat exchanger and a wet-cooling ...