Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Claim Construction

HAEMONETICS, CORP. V. BAXTER HEALTHCARE CORP.
  • “Patent claims function to delineate the precise scope of a claimed invention and to give notice to the public, including potential competitors, of the patentee’s right to exclude. Bicon, Inc. v. Straumann Co., 441 F.3d 945, 950 (Fed. Cir. 2006). This notice function would be undermined, however, if courts construed claims so as to render physical structures and characteristics specifically described in those claims superfluous.”
  • “[W]e do not redraft claims to contradict their plain language in order to avoid a nonsensical result.”
  • “[W]e construe claims with an eye toward giving effect to all of their terms even if it renders the claims inoperable or invalid.”

GENERAL PROTECHT GROUP, INC. V. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION

  • "[A]n expert’s subjective understanding of a patent term is irrelevant."