Celanese International Corp. v. International Trade Commission

Celanese International Corp. and its affiliates (collectively, Celanese) (plaintiff) held patents for a process for creating an artificial sweetener known as Ace-K. Celanese filed a petition with the United States International Trade Commission (commission) (defendant) claiming that Anhui Jinhe Industrial Co. and others (collectively, Jinhe) (defendants) were importing products made using a process that violated Celanese’s patents. Jinhe moved for a summary determination that there was no patent infringement because Celanese’s patent claims were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102’s on-sale bar. It was undisputed that Celanese had been selling products made using the patented process for more than one year before the patents’ effective filing date of September 1, 2016. However, Celanese argued that the on-sale bar did not invalidate the patent claims because the process that was the subject of the patents remained secret and was not sold to any third parties before the patents’ effective date. Only goods made using the process had been sold, and the goods were not the subject of the patents. An administrative-law judge held in Jinhe’s favor. When the commission denied Celanese’s petition for review, the judge’s determination became a final decision of the commission. Celanese appealed that final decision to the Federal Circuit.