PPG Maintains Paint Patent Trial Win Against Sherwin-Williams

The Federal Circuit upheld a Pennsylvania jury’s finding that five patents owned by the Sherwin-Williams Company and allegedly cribbed by an industrial paint-making rival are invalid.

Sherwin-Williams’ unsuccessful challenge to the verdict turned on the scope of a 1998 can-coating patent owned by PPG Industries Inc., and whether it could reasonably be understood as disclosing organic solution polymerization in addition to water-based polymerization. The three-judge appeals court panel agreed with PPG’s argument in favor of a broader reading of its patent, which it argued covered the same technology as the Sherwin-Williams patents.

“PPG presented expert testimony that a person ...