Rules are Rules
The Fed. Cir. (In re: Facebook, Inc.), in a nonprecedential decision, reversed the decision of the Board, finding that the Board’s reading of the “reference cannot be supported by substantial evidence.” Applicant’s claim to a method, by a computing device,…determining in response to an instruction to adjust the position or size of a first image element, the second positioning of at least one second image element based on a rule requiring the image elements to be contiguous was found anticipated and obvious by the Board over a disclosure of an example algorithm where first and second images happened to result in contiguity. The Fed. Cir. interpreted the reference as not requiring contiguity, and thus not anticipatory of a rule which required contiguity. In this instance, disclosure of contiguity was not a rule for contiguity. Reflect on the finding that the Board’s reading of the reference was not supported by substantial evidence.