Applicant fights hard to get Examiner to provide translation of foreign reference

Takeaway: The Examiner rejected using a Japanese language reference. The rejection specifically referred to a drawing in the reference, but the Examiner did not provide a translation of the text that appeared in the drawing. The Applicant raised this issue several times in prosecution. The Applicant also filed a Petition under § 1.181, requesting the TC Director to compel the Examiner to act. After the fourth request, the Examiner finally provided a translation of the text in the relied-upon drawing. The Applicant later appealed. (Appl. No. 11/474,530 to Arjomand, "Window Refrigerator," available on Public Pair.)

Details:
Appl. No. 11/474,530 to Arjomand "Window Refrigerator"
(file wrapper available on Public Pair)

The application was directed to a "refrigerator for home use having its front indoors and its condenser coil outdoors to save electricity whenever the outdoors is colder than indoors."

In the first Office Action (mail date July 16, 2009), the Examiner rejected the claims as anticipated by patent publication JP 063000416A. A machine translation of the reference specification was included with the Office Action. A few weeks after the Office Action was mailed, the Applicant filed a paper requesting the Examiner to provide a translation of the entire reference. (This scenario is covered by MPEP 710.06 "Situations When Reply Period is Reset or Restarted.") The request explained:

The Examiner provided a machine translation accompanied by a single Figure which does not appear to be the one relied on by the Examiner. Applicant could only find the published abstract online. Applicant requests that all figures be supplied and that new a response period be set.

Five weeks after the Office Action mail date, the Examiner had not complied with the Applicant's request, so the Applicant filed a Petition under 1.181. The Petition asserted that it was PTO policy to supply "clear" translations of foreign language references (citing Ex parte Rudd, Appeal 2007-3775). The Applicant requested the Technology Center director to compel the Examiner to take the following actions:

• supply the drawings from the cited reference
• if the drawings include text in Japanese, supply an English translation of such material
• set a new 3-month response period, as of mailing date of the drawings

Five days after the Petition was filed, the Examiner sent a copy of the entire reference – including figures – in Japanese. The Examiner also reset the period for Response, to start from August 31 rather than July 25.  The Applicant then filed a paper specifically requesting the Examiner to provide an English translation of foreign-language subject matter found in FIG. 5 (the sole figure relied upon by the Examiner). The Applicant also requested a new 3-month response period.

On Sept. 25, the Examiner sent a "Miscellaneous Action" with this explanation:

   The rejection based on the JP patent is solely for teaching "ref/freezer (fig. 5) that has a separate freezer compt (8) and a fridge comp (9) where a damper (18) is disposed adjacent the fridge compartment (fig. 5) and dependent on a reference frame of view, the damper is disposed ... (fig. 5.)"
    Therefore no additional English translation of fig. 5 is deemed necessary in view of the computer translation sent earlier. The response period for the outstanding Office Action mailed 8/25/2009 remains UNCHANGED.

The Applicant filed a Response to Office Action a few weeks short of the six month date of the new reply period. The Applicant amended claims but also brought up the issue of the missing translation for the drawings. According to the Applicant, the Examiner's refusal to provide a full translation left the Applicant unable to determine whether the Examiner was impermissibly picking and choosing from the teachings of the reference. (In re Wesslau, 353 F.2d 238, 241 (C.C.P.A. 1965)). This refusal denied the Applicant the "possibility of presenting an educated response to the Office Action." The Applicant also noted the pending Petition to the TC Director.

The Examiner issued an Office Action, which was Final because of the claim amendments. The Office Action used the same Japanese reference in the rejection, and said nothing about Applicant's renewed request for a translation.

The Applicant filed a After Final Response within the two month date, and once again brought up the Examiner's failure to provide a full translation. This time the Applicant made arguments about the level of skill in the art. The Applicant took the position that the poor translation of the Japanese language reference made it impossible to determine the level of skill in the art. As a result, the third Graham factor had not been resolved and the rejection was deficient.

The Examiner issued an Advisory Action and indicated that he would request a full translation. He nonetheless maintained that it was proper to rely on a translated abstract of a foreign reference. The Examiner also asserted that a POSITA would know that the abstract is accurate. Furthermore, since the abstract was sufficient, the level of skill has been established.

Three weeks after the Advisory Action, the Examiner sent the translated figures. The Applicant filed an RCE with all new claims and thanked the Examiner for supplying the translation. The Applicant appealed after the next Office Action, which used a new primary reference (also Japanese). The original reference remained.

My two cents: I think reasonable minds can differ about whether fighting about a missing translation is a good idea. I do think it's important to try to make some forward progress on the merits of the case, rather than getting stuck solely on the translation issue.

I like the idea of filing a petition while at the same time continuing raise it with the Examiner. Here, looks like the Applicant worn the Examiner down before the petition was decided.

I'm generally in favor of appealing early. But failure to provide a translation is a petitionable, not appealable, matter. So appealing early would be a bad idea if you wanted to limit your arguments to failure to provide a full translation. In other words, I think you need to address the Examiner's assertions about the reference, even if you don't have all the information you need to make a great argument.

You could say, as the Applicant did, that the insufficient translation means the Examiner failed to make a Prima Facie case. And, sure, Prima Facie case is certainly something you can raise on appeal. Still, the interaction of these issues – Examiner requirements during prosecution, level of skill, foreign language reference – is complex. So I wouldn't bet my appeal on the Board holding that incomplete English translation means no level of skill means no Prima Facie case.

Finally, the Applicant could have bypassed the Examiner and gotten its own translation. Could be that costs actual money. But maybe not a lot. After all, it was only the Japanese text on the figures themselves that the Applicant was fighting about at the end. The Examiner had already provided the English language text of the entire specification. (After a specific request by the Applicant, that is.) 

PTAB agrees with Applicant that "beyond predefined speed" means above, not below

Takeaway: The Applicant appealed claims to a braking system. The limitation at issue read
"detection of ... rotational engine speed falling below a predetermined minimum." The Examiner relied on this statement in a Japanese reference: "judge whether rotation is beyond a predefined limit." The Applicant argued that the ordinary meaning of "beyond" was more than the limit, where the claim specified "below" the limit. Neither side cited a definition or any other evidence of meaning to a POSITA. The Board summarily agreed with the Applicant, citing to a dictionary definition, and reversed the rejection. (Ex parte Sabelstrom, PTAB 2015.)

Details:
Ex parte Sabelstrom
Appeal 2012012232; Appl. No. 11/721,180; Tech. Center 3600
Decided:  July 30, 2015

The Examiner introduced Hoshido (a Japanese reference) in a Final Office Action, after the Applicant amended in the first response. The rejection read:

As per claim 1, Hoshido discloses Auxiliary Brake Control Device of Vehicle comprising:
     means for disengaging the auxiliary brakes when the incident is detected;
     ... wherein the incident comprises at least one of: ...
     the rotational speed of the engine falling below a predetermined minimum value (engine rotation is beyond predetermined rotation (for example 900 RPM), Paragraph 21).

The Final Office Action included a copy of Hoshido (in Japanese), along with the corresponding English language abstract.

In the Appeal Brief, the Applicant argued that the Examiner had misinterpreted Hoshido. The Applicant included (in the Evidence Appendix) a machine translation from the JPO, and explained as follows

     It appears that [the relied-upon statement in Hoshido] has been construed to correspond to a step of determining that the rotational speed of the engine has fallen below a predetermined value. This is not correct. ...      In paragraph 21 a set of rules, steps 2-5, are defined, which set of rules are used for determining that braking is unnecessary, that is it is determined whether the driving condition is such that no brakes should be applied. ...
     In the third condition (4) it is determined whether the engine speed is beyond certain threshold value or not. A normal meaning of beyond is "more than; in excess or over and above"...  If the engine is running at low speed, there will be a reason to assume that braking is unnecessary, while if the engine is running a high speed, braking may be assumed to be desired. Thus, "beyond" should be understood to mean that braking is caused to occur when engine speed is above a predetermined value, not below the value.

The Applicant offered this additional context for the teachings of Hoshido:

It should also be noted that the exemplified condition is 900 RPM, a typical mid-range speed for diesel truck engine. Idling speed would be around 700 RPM and risk for stall is typically 100 rpm below this. It is thus clear that the condition tests whether the engine speed is above a certain threshold value or not.  

The Examiner's Answer repeated the same position. The only relevant additional information was this comment on the Applicant's statement about mid-range, idle, and stall speeds: "This explanation is so broad, different type of engine has different range of engine speeds according to manufacture specification."

The Reply Brief included a summary of differences between the claimed invention and the teachings of Hoshido. The Applicant did not further discuss the meaning of "beyond predetermined rotation."

My two cents: One of the few instances in prosecution where the issue really was the teachings of the reference, rather than the  meaning of the claims. The Applicant was smart to focus on meaning, though the position would be strengthened by offering evidence rather than a naked assertion.

Notably, it was the Applicant and not the Examiner that provided an English translation of the Japanese language reference. MPEP 706.2(II) that if the Examiner relies on the document itself rather than just the abstract, a translation should be provided.

The Applicant included the translation in the Evidence section of the Appeal Brief. Technically, the Applicant should have submitted this earlier and had the Examiner enter it as evidence. I'm glad to see the Board didn't ding the Applicant on this technicality, especially since the Examiner didn't follow the rules in the first place.

PTAB finds Applicant arguments about misleading terms in translated reference were not supported by evidence

Takeaway: An Applicant argued on appeal that a German patent reference didn't disclose the claim limitation "helically extending" despite the presence of "setscrew," "grub screw," and "screwed in" in the English translation. According to the Applicant, the terminology used in the reference could also be used to describe a twist-and-lock structure which did not include helically wound threads. The Applicant also pointed to the lack of a clear illustration of helical threads, the fact that the drawing was "poorly described" with only a paragraph of text, and the fact that the reference was translated from German to English. The Board affirmed the Examiner's rejection. The Applicant's arguments about the drawings were contradicted by the express teachings of the text. The arguments about the terms used by Schraber were presented as attorney argument and were not supported by evidence. The Board cited In re Geisler, 116 F.3d 1465, 1471 (Fed. Cir. 1997) for the proposition that "argument by counsel cannot take the place of evidence)." (Ex parte Jackson, PTAB 2012.)

Details:

Ex parte Jackson
Appeal 2010-011356; Appl. No. 10/784,066; Tech. Center 3700
Decided:  March 16, 2012

The application on appeal was directed to a bone screw used in spinal surgery. A portion of a representative claim on appeal read:

     1. A closure for setting engagement with a structural member and comprising:
     (a) a substantially cylindrical body having an outer cylindrical surface ...
     (b) a guide and advancement flange extending helically about said outer cylindrical surface ....
     (c) at least one of said leading surface or said trailing surface [of the flange] being compound in contour and including an inward anti-splay surface component facing generally toward said closure axis...

Claim 1 was rejected as obvious over Schafer (a German patent) in view of Jackson (same inventor as application on appeal). The Applicant identified Schafer in an IDS, and provided a full translation with the IDS.

The main dispute in prosecution revolved around the teachings of Schafer with respect to the claim limitation "a guide and advancement flange extending helically." The Examiner took the position that this feature was disclosed in Schafer's FIG. 2 (below).

Three lines of argument developed during prosecution. One argument focused on the meaning of "helically wound" (although this precise language wasn't in the claim). A second argument focused on what a POSITA would understand from Schafer's drawings. The third argument related to Schafer's textual description, as translated into English from the original German.

In the first response, the Applicant explained that the perspective view of Schafer's FIG. 2 made it "hard to determine if it has a pitch of any kind," but "comparing the flange shaped openings in comparative spacing from the edge of the seat, indicates that there is no conventional thread positive pitch present on the flanks of the structure" (emphasis added). The Applicant concluded that Schafer's flange was a "twist screw in and lock structure" rather than a helical structure.

Although the Applicant's initial response didn't explicitly discuss claim construction, the Examiner addressed claim construction in the next Office Action. The Examiner explained that "any angular movement in the structure satisfies 'helically wound' as the claims don't set forth a minimum amount of winding." Further, "pitch need not be 'conventional' to be present and 'conventional' is not recited in the claims."

In a Response to the second Office Action, the Applicant argued that even though pitch wasn't in the claims, the phrase "helically wound" nonetheless implied something about pitch. The Applicant used an annotated Schafer FIG. 2 (below) to explain that Schafer's flange would be helically wound only if D2 > D1 and D4 > D3. But since these conditions did not hold, Schafer's flange was not helically wound.

The Applicant also discussed the text description of FIG. 2 that appeared in the of-record translation of Schafer (supplied earlier by the Applicant with an IDS), which read:

In the exemplary embodiment shown in Figure 2, the bifurcated head 4 of the bone screw 1 likewise has a thread, which, however, has a top flank 11 and a bottom flank 10 embodied in a stepped fashion. The shoulder of the bottom flank 10 is shaped such that it forms an undercut 17. This undercut 17, particularly by means of the shoulder 18, prevents the legs 5 from being bent radially outward while the grub screw 3 is being screwed in. A positive lock is thus produced in the radial direction between the bifurcated head 4 and grub screw 3. This positive lock prevents, as previously mentioned, any slippage of the leg 5.
(Emphasis added.)

Based on the drawing and this text, the Applicant urged that FIG. 2 was a "twist and lock" structure in which "projections are screwed or rotated ninety degrees into the receiver," rather than a "structure that will helically rotate into the receiver" as claimed.

The Examiner maintained the rejection in the next Office Action. The Examiner explicitly discussed claim interpretation: "helically wound just means it progresses in a spiral or helical fashion, i.e. is threaded (as opposed to 'twist-lock' designs)." The Schafer text actually relied on by the Applicant "teaches not only that the device has threads but that the anti-splay grub screw is screwed in" (emphasis in original). Thus, "it is quite clear that Schafer discloses a 'threaded' structure (i.e., a helically wound flange structure)."

The Applicant filed one more response before appeal and addressed the Examiner's latest contentions.
According to the Applicant,

There is nothing that requires a "grub screw," as it is translated from German, to be helically wound. Such a screw can have mating portions that rotate, for example, 90°, into each other and such are well known. It is believed that this is what is shown in the German [Schafer] reference.

When the Examiner maintained the rejection, the Applicant appealed. In the Appeal Brief, the Applicant noted that FIG. 2 was "only a partial cross section of the receiver" and the corresponding text was limited to "a single paragraph." The Applicant characterized the embodiment of FIG. 2 as "poorly described" and "apparently added as a quick afterthought." According to the Applicant, a POSITA would see in FIG. 2 that all 7 tiers of the receiver were equally spaced from front to bottom on front and back and essentially horizontal, i.e., did not have a pitch. This was contrary to the meaning of "helically wound," which implied that each tier has a pitch going from one tier to the next with each 360° revolution.

The Applicant then made this point by including FIG. 2 next to a FIG. 2 modified to be helically wound). The juxtaposition allowed a POSITA to "immediately see" that Schafer's FIG. 2 was a twist-and-lock structure rather than a helically wound structure.

Moving from drawings to text, the Applicant acknowledged that the German Schafer patent, as translated, referred to a grub screw "screwed into" a thread in describing FIG. 2. The Applicant also briefly acknowledged that Schafer used the phrase "screwed in" in describing the embodiment of FIG. 1. But according to the Applicant, this terminology wasn't dispositive:

[T]he term screw can mean simple rotation into something. ... A structure that mates upon rotating 90° can be called a grub screw and rotation or twisting can be interpreted and translated from the German into English as being "screwed in" in the Schafer disclosure to distinguish from the closures that are slid in sideways without rotating.

A POSITA looking at Schafer, as a whole and in context, would understand that the FIG. 2 receiver was not helically wound. Furthermore, a POSITA would also understand that Schafer's "closure and receiver are aligned and the closure twisted or rotated 90° to secure them together." 

In the Answer, the Examiner first reiterated that the Schafer translation relied on by the Applicant used the terms "threads and "screw." The Examiner then referred to a full translation provided with the Answer, and pointed to additional mentions of "threading" and "screwing in the setscrew." (This document was identified as "Full translation of Schafer (DE 298 10 798 U1), Schreiber Translations, Inc., May 2010.")

Moving on to address the Appeal Brief arguments, the Examiner asserted that the Appellant's "opinion" that Schafer disclosed a non-threaded design was "irrelevant since it overlooks or misconstrues what the reference explicitly says, namely, that the design shown in Fig. 2 includes a threaded set screw that is screwed in." (Emphasis added.) And although the closure itself wasn't illustrated, the text of Schafer said that the "closure is 'setscrew 3' and that it forms a friction-lock with the undercut 17 and lug 18 of the thread of the head 4 (translation, page 10, lines 5-7)."

The Examiner also criticized the Applicant's "exaggerated" side by side drawings: 

[G]iven the very small portion of the entire circumference of the threads that is actually shown, the purported pitch imagined by Appellant is unnecessary for a helical thread and implausible in a single-start thread design (only one helical thread ridge). The angle that is necessary for the threads of Fig. 2 would not be extreme (as in Appellant's sketch) in the very small portion of the circumference that is shown in the basic drawing of Fig. 2.

In the appeal decision, the Board found that Schafer did disclose the limitation at issue. The Board first addressed the text of Schafer, and its use of terms such as "screw" and "screwed in." The Board acknowledged Applicant's argument that the context of Schafer would lead a POSITA to understand these terms differently from normal English usage. However, the Board agreed with the Examiner's reading of Schafer and further noted that "argument by counsel cannot take the place of evidence, citing In re Geisler, 116 F.3d 1465, 1471 (Fed. Cir. 1997).

Turning to the Applicant's arguments about Schafer's drawing, the Board first found these arguments ran counter to Schafer's express teachings in the text (i.e., "grub screw," "screwed in"). Moreover, the Board was not persuaded by the Applicant's side-by-side comparison. Instead, the Board agreed with the Examiner that "given the 'very small portion of the entire circumference of the threads' illustrated in Schäfer‟s figure 2, a conclusion cannot be drawn as to the pitch of the threads."

Finally, the Board considered an argument about the secondary reference and found it not persuasive. As a result, the Board affirmed the § 103 rejection.

My two cents: There are several lines of argument at play here.

• Inferences made from a drawing. 
• Overcoming literal teachings of a reference by arguing that the reference really doesn't mean what it says. 
• Attorney argument.
• Translation errors.

Considering the point of whether the FIG. 2 drawing alone showed a helically wound thread, I think the Board got this one wrong. According to the Board, the Applicant made unsupported inferences about thread pitch. Maybe so, and maybe the Applicant overreached with the side-by-side drawing. But the Examiner didn't convincingly show that the FIG. 2 drawing itself illustrated helical winding.  So I think the Applicant won that round.

Even so, the linchpin of the Applicant's argument was overcoming the literal teachings of a reference. Words like "screwed in" and "setscrew" and "grub screw" strongly suggested helically wound threads. The Applicant fought hard to convince the Board that, despite these terms, Schafer's closure structure actually twisted or rotated into alignment with the receiver, and this twist-lock behavior did not require helical threads.

I thought the Applicant did a good job of marshaling facts to put together an argument against ordinary meaning. But in the end, this amounted to nothing but attorney argument. The Applicant should have entered evidence in the form of definitions, technical articles, or an expert declaration. I see no bright line rule for when it's appropriate for the attorney to expound upon the teachings of the reference, and when evidence is needed. But when the core of the argument is what a term means, I think you need evidence.

Finally, the Applicant may have held back the strongest argument. To me, the Appeal Brief statement "rotation or twisting can be interpreted and translated from the German into English as being 'screwed in' " was a hint that the translation from German to English was in error. But the Applicant didn't make this point explicit. And this making this argument would certainly require evidence.

If you wanted to argue translation error, what sort of points would you make and what sort of evidence would you submit? Are machine translations more vulnerable here?

BPAI finds it proper to use corresponding US application as translation of foreign patent application

Takeaway: The Examiner rejected claims under § 102(b) as being anticipated by a WIPO publication in French, as evidenced by a US patent publication by the same inventor. On appeal, the Applicant argued that the rejection was improper because the Examiner did not provide a translation of the WIPO publication nor show that the US patent publication was the same as the WIPO publication. In the Answer, the Examiner explained that the US patent publication was the national stage entry of the WIPO international publication. The Board found the rejection was proper because the Examiner had shown that both publications corresponded to the same document, and the Applicant did not refute this finding. The Board then affirmed the anticipation rejection on the merits.

Details:
Ex parte Kornfalt
Appeal 2010008703; Appl. No. 10/581,261; Technology Center 1700
Decided  August 30, 2011

In a non-final Office Action, the Examiner rejected a set of claims under § 102(b) as anticipated by a French language publication, WO 03/060256 to Grau, "with evidence by Grau (U.S. 2005/0115181) and Bollinger [a 2003 publication of the periodical Hardwood Floors." The Examiner further indicated that "Grau '181 is interpreted as the English equivalent to [French] Grau '256."

In response, the Applicant distinguished the claims from Grau. However the Applicant also questioned the use of an anticipation rejection using multiple references, and the use of Grau '181 in particular. The Applicant cited to MPEP 2131.01, which explains three scenarios in which multiple references are proper. The Applicant argued that the Examiner "did not identify any of these purposes [in MPEP 2131.01] in the citation of the additional two documents." The Applicant also noted that English language Grau '181 is not prior art under § 102(b), since it was published after Applicant's priority date. As such, the Applicant concluded that "Grau '181 cannot be used as 'evidence' for the teaching of [French language] Grau '256."

In the subsequent final Office Action, the Examiner maintained the anticipation rejection and explained why the Applicant's arguments were not persuasive. The Examiner did remove Bollinger from the rejection, but maintained "Grau (WO 03/060256) evidence by Grau (US 2005/0115181)." The Examiner explained that "Grau '181 is not cited as prior art but rather as the English translation of Grau '256." The Examiner noted that the burden had shifted to the Applicant: "If Applicant believes that the translation of Grau '256 is not accurate as relied on the Applicant is requested to point out any such material discrepancy."

The Applicant filed an After Final Response which corrected a typographical error in the claims. The Applicant continued to argue that the anticipation rejection was not proper because Grau '256 "is not prior art under any applicable section of USC 102." The Applicant argued that the Examiner had improperly shifted the buden:

If the examiner contends that the Grau WO reference, though in a foreign language supports his rejection, the burden is upon the examiner to obtain a translation of Grau WO and he cannot shift this burden to applicants to obtain their own translation when it is clear that Grau WO does not support the examiner's contentions as will be discussed in detail below.

The Examiner issued an Advisory Action entering the claim amendment and including a copy of the Grau '256 WO publication. The Examiner stated that "Grau '256 appears to be equivalent to Grau '181." The Advisory Action also included an explanation of how the Examiner was interpreting the claims.

The Applicant filed a Notice of Appeal. In the Appeal Brief, the Applicant made substantive arguments distinguishing the claims over Grau. But the Applicant also continued to challenge the use of the 'Grau 256 WO publication:

Initially, the Examiner states that Grau '181 is the English equivalent to Grau '256. The Examiner provides no reasoning for making a statement nor to applicant's knowledge is there evidence that Grau '256 contains the teachings relied upon by the Exanliner with reference to Grau "181. It is of course a basic concept of Patent law that the party asserting a reference as prior art has the duty to establish that it is, in fact, prior art ... [A]s Examiner has never provided applicant with an English language translation of Grau '256, Applicants submit that the Examiner has not established that Grau '256 is anticipatory of the claimed invention.

In the Answer, the Examiner backed up his assertion that Grau '181 was the English equivalent of the relied-on Grau '256 WO publication, by showing a family relationship between the two:

Grau (US 200510115181) is the national stage entry of PCTlFR03100025 filed 1/7/2003. The international application number for Grau (WO 031060256) is the same PCTlFR03100025 with filing date of 1/7/2003. Grau (WO 031060256) was published on 7/24/2003 which is before the Swedish filing date of 1211 112003 of Applicant's application.

The Board found that the Examiner had properly relied on Grau ‘181 as the English translation of Grau ‘256, since the Examiner did make the requisite factual findings:

As is apparent from pages 19 and 20 of the Answer, the Examiner has supplied a factual proof for finding that both Grau ‘256 and ‘181 correspond to the same document, PCT/FR03/00025 filed on January 7, 2003. Appellants have not disputed the accuracy of this proof. Nor have Appellants shown any inconsistencies between the disclosures of Grau ‘181 and Grau ‘256.

The Board then went on to affirm the anticipation rejection on the merits.


My two cents: I wouldn't file an appeal on this point alone, but the Applicant did have substantive arguments too. As long as you're fighting on substance, I don't see anything wrong with also arguing about "technicalities." Here. that means forcing the Examiner to thoroughly explain his use of the English language, non-prior art Grau as "evidence" of the teachings of the French language, prior-art Grau.

The most interesting thing about this case is how many rounds it took for the Examiner to explain the family relationship between the two Grau references. If the Examiner had explained that before appeal, the Applicant might have stopped insisting on a translation.

Not sure why the Applicant didn't dig up the family relationship himself, since there's enough information on the WIPO website to figure it out. So if you encounter a similar situation with a non-prior art patent publication being used as "evidence" as a prior art patent publication, you might want to see if there is an easily discoverable relationship between the two.