by Steve Driskill | Feb 20, 2013 | [sub] doctrine of equivalents, Claim Interpretation
The court here has solidified its technically dicta discussion in Deere v. Bush Hog a couple months ago attempting to curb what it sees as an abuse of the vitiation doctrine when considering equivalency. The proper inquiry under the doctrine of equivalents, according...
by Steve Driskill | Dec 4, 2012 | [sub] doctrine of equivalents, Claim Interpretation
Although technically dicta based on the reversal of the underlying literal construction, the court went out of its way to note that “[t]he district court’s treatment of the doctrine of equivalents reveals a common misperception regarding ‘vitiation’ that warrants some...
by Steve Driskill | Oct 11, 2012 | [sub] doctrine of equivalents, Claim Interpretation
This a good example of an application where the patentee did not recite more in the claims than he had to. While possibly the only way he could have imagined doing the programming back at the time of the invention was to use a large, external computer, the nature of...
by Steve Driskill | Sep 28, 2012 | [sub] doctrine of equivalents, Claim Interpretation
“[A]bsent more limiting language in the intrinsic record” the doctrine of equivalents can be applied to find infringement where the accused value is insubstantially different from the claimed value, even for fuzzy qualitative terms like “substantially all” that...
by Steve Driskill | Sep 7, 2012 | [sub] doctrine of equivalents, [sub] preamble, Claim Interpretation
If “the body of the claim fully and intrinsically sets forth the complete invention, including all of its limitations, and the preamble offers no distinct definition of any of the claimed invention’s limitations, but rather merely states, for example, the purpose or...
by Steve Driskill | Sep 4, 2012 | [sub] doctrine of equivalents, [sub] indirect, Claim Interpretation, Infringement
Take care to avoid claiming unnecessary elements – the test for establishing infringement under the doctrine of equivalence cannot be satisfied by a theory that would entirely vitiate a particular claim element (the all-elements rule). Background / Facts: Despite a...
