⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Federal Circuit hears Nuhn Industries versus Bazooka-Farmstar, a patent dispute over equipment for handling farm manure. Nuhn holds a patent on an amphibious pumping vehicle that can travel on land, float in a manure lagoon and agitate its contents. Bazooka challenged that patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which found all thirty-eight claims unpatentable as obvious. The claims are the written definitions of the invention the patent protects. Obviousness asks whether the claimed invention, considered as a whole, would have been obvious to an ordinarily skilled person before its effective filing date, in light of earlier technology. Nuhn is appealing the Board's decision. The dispute includes what it means for flotation elements to be between the vehicle's wheels, whether the Board properly relied on expert testimony, and how it treated Nuhn's evidence of commercial success and copying, known as secondary considerations in the obviousness analysis.

Nuhn Industries Ltd. v. Bazooka-Farmstar, LLC (No. 25-1923) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, argued October 7, 2026.