Federal Circuit Upholds Invalidating Parts of Fracking Patent

The Federal Circuit upheld an administrative patent tribunal’s decision invalidating some parts of a patent related to infrastructure for hydraulic fracking.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was correct in finding that some parts of Cameron International Corp.'s patent were unpatentable, but not all, according to a nonprecedential opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The appeals court declined to adopt proposed claim constructions for some fracking terms, affirming the PTAB’s decision.

The invention, U.S. Patent No. 9,932,800, covers a phase of the hydraulic fracking process where fracturing fluid is pumped into a well at ...