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Consent judgment with no explanation of how claim construction affected noninfringement vacated

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

In a decision Tuesday, the Federal Circuit vacated a consent judgment entered by a district court and remanded the case for clarification. The district court entered a consent judgment, stipulated by the parties, stating the defendants' products did not infringe under the district court's claim construction of several terms, but that the plaintiff could still appeal the claim construction.

The Federal Circuit vacated the decision and remanded the case because the judgment lacked vital information as to whether there existed a controversy upon which the court could rule.  It was not apparent from the judgment which (if any) of the claim terms at issue affected the stipulation of noninfringement.  Further, on appeal, the parties admitted the district court's construction of some of the terms did not have any effect on infringement.  This ambiguity, combined with the fact that there was no "context" of how the claims related to the accused devices, rendered the consent judgment effectively unreviewable.  As a result, the Federal Circuit remanded for further clarification of which terms were actually at issue with regard to infringement.

More regarding Jang v. Boston Sci. Corp. after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on July 17, 2008 (boomark / email).