Plyboo Claims Construction Order Issued

Judge Leighton (Tacoma) recently construed the claim terms of U.S. Patent No. 5,543,197, a patent including claims for "parallel, randomly stacked, stranded, laminated bamboo beams and boards." According to the order, the term "beam" as used in the claims is not necessarily limited to something of sufficient size and strength to serve as a structural support. Further, the term "random orientation" as used in the claims means "that the bamboo segments and stocks used to construct the bamboo beam are not placed in an orderly or uniform fashion; they do not have a top or a bottom, or a front or a back. Instead, they are placed at random. As used in the ‘197 patent, the term also requires that the generally parallel bamboo segments have random, not uniform, lengths, and are staggered or lapped along the length of the beam."
teragren%20claims%20const.pdf

Trainman Lantern Company Wins Summary Judgment of Non-infringement

Some of you may remember my post about this case in March involving US 7,118,245 for a Trainman Lantern. The Plaintiff in this case, A.G. Design & Associates, LLC, sells patented lanterns to Burlington Northern Santa Fe and other railroads for use by trainmen and engineers. They sued Trainman Lantern Company and initially won a preliminary injunction from Judge Burgess, ordering TLC to cease marketing the accused device. This injunction was vacated by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and TLC has now won summary judgment of non-infringement. The primary argument was prosecution history estoppel for the element “a plurality of ports in said reflector that permit light from said primary source to pass through in a lateral direction so as to augment said light source from at least one secondary source,” a limitation added to the broadest independent claim during prosecution. There was no dispute that TLC did not literally infringe, so the only question before the court on summary judgment was whether the plaintiff had sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption of surrender for application of prosecution history estoppel. Judge Leighton found they could not, and granted Summary Judgment for TLC.


Trainman143%20Order%20granting%20part%20denying%20part%20defendants%20summary%20judgment.pdf

Preliminary Injunction in Tacoma Lantern Case Reversed by the CAFC

Note: This post was modified on 3/27/2008 to reflect the fact that the opinion is nonprecedential.

In this case for infringement of US 7,118,245, the USDC, WDWA in Tacoma granted the plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction on July 3, 2007. In ordering the preliminary injunction, the district court (Judge Burgess) noted that expert testimony provided that the accused device was "identical in all respects (within + or - .005) to the Patented Device, except that the Accused Device lacked the ‘plurality of ports’ in the reflector that would allow the central light to augment the lateral light." Additionally, the district court briefly discussed a covenant not to compete between the parties, concluding that "because a serious question has been raised on the issue of the Covenant Not To Compete . . . another basis for preserving the status quo pending final resolution of the issue has been shown."

Today in a nonprecedential opinion authored by Judge Prost and joined by Judges Rader and Schall, the CAFC reversed finding that substantial questions existed as to whether the accused devices infringed under a doctrine of equivalents analysis, and that even if the covenant not to compete were enforceable, it had expired.

Judge Settle (Tacoma) Stays Patent Case Pending Reexamination

U.S. District Court Judge, Benjamin Settle (nominated by George W. Bush on January 9, 2007, to a seat vacated by Franklin D. Burgess; Confirmed by the Senate on June 28, 2007, and received commission on July 2, 2007) recently stayed a dispute involving U.S. Patent Nos. 5,993,303 and 6,250,998, patents for hand-held cutting tools.

The dispute is between Pactool International, Ltd and DeWalt Industrial Tool Co., as well as Kett Tool Company (Case No. 06-5367). Judge Settle granted Kett Tool Company's motion to stay in view of a request for reexamination that was filed on December 20, 2007. While the PTO has not yet granted Kett's request for reexamination, Judge Settle stayed the case anyway, calling for a stay until May 1, 2008, and permitting the parties to file a motion to lift the stay in the event the PTO denies Kett's request for reexamination.
PactoolOrderStay.pdf