Descriptions that are only tangentially related to characterizations of “the present invention” should not be read as constituting a mandatory claim limitation to be read into the claims. Here, for example, a statement about the “present invention” in the first sentence of the summary section was found to not extend as limiting of other aspects described in the next sentence of the summary section. “It is not true that because one sentence in the paragraph begins with the ‘present invention’ language that everything that follows in the same paragraph limits all subsequent claims.” It is nevertheless still preferable to avoid characterizing “the present invention” at all.
Background / Facts: The patent being asserted here is directed to extending speech recognition capabilities to mobile devices with limited resources by sending a user’s “voice input” to a remote speech recognition server. The summary of the invention section begins with a sentence stating that “[t]he present invention” relates to a wireless communication system using a remote speech recognition server, and a second sentence stating that “[t]he translation process begins by establishing a voice communication channel between a mobile device and the speech recognition server.”
Issue(s): Whether this characterization of “the present invention” should be read to limit the “voice input” to a voice input transmitted over a particular type of channel, a voice channel as opposed to a data channel.
Holding(s): No. “We do not agree that the second sentence in the summary of the invention constitutes a disclaimer that limits the scope of every claim. … It is not true that because one sentence in the paragraph begins with the ‘present invention’ language that everything that follows in the same paragraph limits all subsequent claims. This should not be interpreted as any sort of hard rule regarding claim construction. Every claim construction, and each potential disclaimer, has to be considered in the context of each individual patent. We do not read this specification as clearly and unmistakably requiring that voice signals be transmitted exclusively over voice channels.”