A method step recited as resulting in the “formation” of a given element may be interpreted as excluding from that element any features requiring additional steps. Here, for example, the claimed “patterning” of an imaging layer “to form a first patterned layer” was found to exclude interpretations of the “first patterned layer” that sought to include underlying material laid down prior to the patterning step. “The language of the claim … indicates that the [claim element] is the immediate result of performing the [claimed] process itself, not of that process plus an additional unclaimed process.” It may therefore be best to phrase such “formation” processes as forming a given element “at least in part” or the like.
Background / Facts: The patent being asserted here is directed to making patterns in semiconductor wafers. The claims recite “patterning [a] first imaging layer in accordance with a first pattern to form a first patterned layer.” The accused fabrication method involves forming a similar “first patterned layer” but from not only an “imaging layer,” but also underlying material.
Issue(s): Whether the claimed “patterned layer” is limited to the material of the imaging layer itself—what remains (material and spaces) after the patterning process has removed some of the material—and cannot include other material configured according to the pattern.
Holding(s): Yes. “The language of the claim … indicates that the first patterned layer is the immediate result of performing the patterning process itself, not of that process plus an additional unclaimed process. The claim does not identify any steps in the creation of the patterned layer apart from patterning. … In the absence of any identification of any other steps, the immediate result of ‘patterning’ is the ‘patterned layer,’ which is necessarily the remaining material (and spaces) of the imaging layer.”