In SUFFOLK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC v. AOL INC., Appeal No. 13-1392, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s summary judgment of anticipation based on a “printed publication” in the form of an online Usenet newsgroup post.
The Federal Circuit held that a 1995 Usenet newsgroup post qualified as a printed publication because it was directed at an audience of persons of ordinary skill in the art and was made sufficiently available. Furthermore, despite evidence of superficial alterations, testimony from the author sufficiently authenticated the post. The district court also did not abuse its discretion by excluding post-claim-construction testimony from Suffolk’s expert on the validity of the independent claim because the expert had previously testified to having no opinion on the validity of that claim.
