Patent Law

CIAS v. Alliance Gaming (On petition for Cert. 2008)

In a recent petition to the Supreme Court, CIAS asks the Supreme Court to think about how prosecution statements should be used for claim construction.

Issue: Whether the Federal Circuit’s use of patent prosecution history statements in claim construction is so erroneously inconsistent among its own panel decisions and incompatible with its prior en banc decision in Phillips as to make it impossible for the public to know with any degree of confidence the scope of patent claims; and whether that Court’s inconsistent judgment in this case should be reversed.

In this case, CIAS discussed a reference that had been cited by the Examiner. Although the reference was not asserted in a rejection, the CAFC found that CIAS’s discussion of the reference should shape how the patent claims were interpreted.

In its petition, CIAS argues that the CAFC’s approach to determine whether such prosecution history alters claim construction is much like the proverbial random walk.

Out of 16 district court cases since Phillips specifically dealing with the issue of prosecution history disclaimer, the Federal Circuit has disagreed with the district court on that issue a total of 12 times. … [T]he Federal Circuit’s inconsistency has created a confused body of decisions. It is now extremely difficult for patent holders and the public to effectively gauge the meaning of claim terms in light of prosecution history statements.

Documents:

• File Attachment: CIAS_Petition.pdf (190 KB).
• File Attachment: CIAS_Petition_Appendix_H.pdf (733 KB) (Listing the 16 cases).
• Patently-O on CIAS (Discussing a different portion of the CAFC opinion).
• Federal Circuit opinion