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Claim term construed by construing different term in specification deleted from claim

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

In a decision last week, the Federal Circuit affirmed-in-part and vacated-in-part a district court's summary judgment of noninfringement based on a revised claim construction of two claim terms.  The court, in somewhat of a departure from its typical practice, also construed one additional term that appeared likely to be relevant on remand, but which did not form the basis for the summary judgment ruling.

While the Federal Circuit modified the construction of both terms that formed the basis of the summary judgment ruling, the court nevertheless found that summary judgment was still proper for one of the two groups of defendants under the broader revised construction.  The court remanded with respect to the other group of defendants, as the record was unclear whether summary judgment was appropriate.

Judge Linn dissented, and would have construed the term that formed the basis for the partial affirmance more broadly.  He asserted the majority unduly narrowed the claim based on passages in the specification relating to a term not even used in the claim itself, and would therefore have construed the claim more broadly.

More detail of Decisioning.com, Inc. v. Federated Dep't Stores, Inc. after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on May 12, 2008 (boomark / email).