Feral Hog-Trapping Patents Deemed Obvious, Nixed by Fed. Circuit

Two wild hog-trapping patents that have been asserted in infringement suits in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma were canceled by the Federal Circuit, which sided with an administrative tribunal that found the claimed inventions obvious.

The patents, owned by Jager Pro Inc. involve capturing feral hogs in an enclosure and closing a gate using a camera-based monitoring trap system. W-W Manufacturing Co. had argued that “user controlled” animal traps were well-known at the time of Jager’s purported invention.

WW, upon being sued in US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, sought to invalidate the patents at the Patent Trial ...