Crown’s Can-Making Patents Wiped Out Due to Prior Sales Offer

The Federal Circuit disposed of three die-necking patents owned by units of can manufacturing giant Crown Holdings Inc. that were asserted in an infringement suit against a Virgnia-based rival.

The appeals court sided with Dover Corp. unit Belvac Production Machinery Inc., determining Crown’s technology was barred from patent protection because the company had offered a “necking machine embodying the invention” for sale more than a year before a key date on which the company’s first patent application was filed.

In a 2022 trial in the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia, a jury found Belvac didn’t infringe ...