Belvac Production Machinery, a global pioneer in the design and manufacture of aluminium can equipment, was declared clear by a jury in Virginia. The jury found that competitor Crown Packaging's patents on a machine that makes aluminium beverage cans were not violated by container manufacturer Belvac Production Machinery.
After a nine-day trial, the jury found that Crown Packaging Technology Inc. had not provided sufficient evidence to support its claims that Belvac Production Machinery Inc. had violated three patents related to a machine used to produce beverage cans. The jury further concluded that Belvac had not established that the eight stated claims were barred by the on-sale provision.
Crown Packaging and a division of CarnaudMetalbox Engineering Ltd. filed a lawsuit in July 2018 alleging that three patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office between August 2010 and May 2018 were violated by Belvac's eponymous can-making machine, which was capable of producing at least 3,000 metal beverage cans per minute.
"In short, under Federal Circuit law, the purported 'offer' was not an offer for the purposes of the on-sale bar clause. It was merely a quotation,” said U.S. District Judge Norman Moon.
In August 2020, Crown Packaging updated the complaint. The following August, Belvac requested summary judgement from U.S. District Judge Norman Moon, claiming that the patents were ineligible due to the on-sale bar legislation, which forbids the patenting of an invention if it has been in use for more than a year before the application. During the final week of June, the jury trial started, and it ended on Friday. The jury concluded that none of the eight alleged claims was barred by the on-sale ban legislation and that Belvac had not knowingly violated the contested technology.
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