A newsletter from West providing Westlaw® search tips for corporate counsel and staff

Patent claim construction in the Federal Circuit—is that one of those obscure topics known only to a small handful of practitioners? Hardly.

First of all, claim construction is a make-or-break determination in patent law. Observes one expert: "Claim construction is often outcome-determinative in infringement cases; once the patent claims have been construed, summary judgment for one side or the other is quite common." Mark A. Lemley, The Changing Meaning of Patent Claim Terms, 104 Mich. L. Rev. 101, 108 (2005).

Second, the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction over appeals in patent cases. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 1295(a)(4). To those close to patent law (including federal judges, patent litigation attorneys, in-house counsel, and patent prosecutors who prepare patent specifications and claims), Federal Circuit precedent is typically the golden rule.

Accordingly, these practitioners will keep the Claim Construction in the Federal Circuit database (CLAIMCFC) within easy reach.

CLAIMCFC is a concise synthesis of Federal Circuit case law dealing with every aspect of patent claim construction, including claim indefiniteness, extrinsic evidence, procedure and timing, and summary judgments. It incorporates the detailed guidance of the landmark case Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005). This resource is written and edited by Edward Manzo, principal counsel for the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) when IPLAC appeared as amicus curiae in the Phillips case.

As with many analytical databases, you can easily browse the headings and view sections of CLAIMCFC by using the Table of Contents service. When viewing a section, you can retrieve the full text of documents cited in the section by clicking the appropriate link.