Intellectual Property Law

District Court's Five Year Delay in Issuing Opinion After a Patent Trial Did Not Warrant Reassignment of the Case on Remand

The One Sentence Summary: The panel considered several issues in affirming in part rulings by the district court on a dispute about patents for high pressure liquid chromatography, and refused to reassign the case despite a five year delay after trial before the district court issued its opinion.

Federal Circuit Holdings:

• Patentee did not expressly disavow claim scope and limit the term "rigid" to exclude polymeric molecules by submitting a declaration distinguishing certain polymeric molecules in a prior art references as non-rigid.
• Expert testimony provided sufficient evidence that the accused particles were "rigid" as required by the claim construction.
• The district court erred in refusing to allow the jury to consider an "iffy" anticipation argument in light of the obviousness argument. Anticipation and obviousness are separate defenses, and a jury could find anticipation even if it did not find obviousness.
• The district court did not err in rejecting an inequitable conduct argument by finding no intent to deceive. The district court accepted witness testimony that the prosecuting attorney felt that the information withheld from the PTO (an expert's disagreement as to whether flow was "turbulent") was not material.
• The district court erred in construing the term "greater than about 30 microns" to exclude the accused device. Claims must be construed in light of the claim language, not in light of the accused device.
• The district court's construction improperly read out of the claim the "about" language. The phrase "greater than about 30 microns" is broader than "greater than 30 microns." The meaning of "about" in this context must be determined in light of the purpose of the limitation in the invention. In light of the variation in particle sizes cited in the specification, the panel concluded that the proper construction of ?greater than about 30 ?m? in claim 1 of the ?874 patent is: either (1) greater than 25.434 ?m, or (2) both greater than 23.044 ?m and of sufficiently large size to assure that the column is capable of attaining turbulence.
• The district court's finding of no literal infringement by 25 micrometer particles was in error due to the claim construction and issues of fact as to the diameter of the accused particles.
• Although the doctrine of equivalents can be applied to broad claims, the use of the word "about 30 micrometers" necessarily included the scope of claims that would be encompassed by the doctrine of equivalents.
• The panel remanded for a determination of whether 20 micrometer columns were an acceptable non-infringing substitute for the damage analysis.
• The court affirmed a finding of non-willfulness based upon a close question of whether the claims were limited to non-polymeric materials.
• Enhanced damages were not available absent willfulness.
• Despite a 5 year delay by the district court in issuing its opinion, the panel would not reassign the case to another judge.

Full post as published by IP Law Observer on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).