The U.S. Supreme Court held 8-2 today that the Federal Circuit may no longer ignore some rulings by trial court judges on how to construe patent claims. The outcome marks a major victory for parties that win the often-decisive battles over claim construction in Markman hearings in district court.
Will High Court Curb the Federal Circuit?
A rule that has applied in patent cases since 1998 may go the way of Chevy Cobalt ignition switches.
"Deference, I Don't Have to Show You any Stinkin' Deference" riffed on a line from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), in which Gold Hat, posing as a Mexican Federale, says
District Judge, Sitting on Federal Circuit, Fusses About De Novo Review
U.S. District Judge Ron Clark today used his seat on a Federal Circuit panel as soapbox for speaking out against de novo review of Markman rulings.
In Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370 (1996), the Court snatched from juries the task of deciding what operative words in a patent mean. The Court held that