Opinion ID: 2806769
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: “Sealed Tank”

Text: In construing the term “sealed tank,” the district court adopted “in its entirety” the reasoning of the Commission in the related proceeding that involved the same claim term. In that proceeding, the Commission consulted a dictionary definition that defined “seal” as “a tight and perfect closure (as against the passage of gas or water)” because the term “sealed” is not defined in the specification. J.A. 5347 (citing Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (2001)). An expert testifying before the Commission agreed with this meaning, explaining that the plain meaning of “sealed” is “airtight.” Id. On that basis, the district court construed the term “sealed tank” to mean “a tank that is closed to prevent the entry or exit of materials.” J.A. 3579. Kaneka argues that the district court’s construction conflicts with the intrinsic record because the specification suggests that the “sealed tank” is not closed to prevent entry and exit of all materials. Defendants respond that the district court’s construction is consistent with the only plain and ordinary meaning of the term “sealed,” that is not otherwise defined by the specification. We agree with Kaneka that the district court’s construction is inconsistent with the intrinsic record. Claim construction begins with the language of the claims. Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312–14 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc); Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, Inc., 90 8 KANEKA CORPORATION v. XIAMEN KINGDOMWAY F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed. Cir. 1996). When interpreting claim language, courts consult the intrinsic record, which includes the specification and prosecution history. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1315–17. The specification is “the single best guide to the meaning of a disputed term.” Id. at 1315 (citation omitted). Extrinsic evidence, such as dictionary definitions, for example, may be useful when construing claim terms, “so long as the dictionary definition does not contradict any definition found in or ascertained by a reading of the patent documents.” Id. at 1322–23 (internal quotation marks omitted and emphasis added). The district court’s reliance on the Commission’s dictionary definition and related testimony conflicts with the intrinsic record. Figure 1 and Example 8 suggest that the “sealed tank” should be sealed to the atmosphere, but not necessarily to other materials, such as solvents. See ’340 Patent col. 23 ll. 17–44. In the industrial scale process of Example 8, a solution of disrupted (ruptured) cells containing reduced coenzyme Q10 is “sealed with nitrogen gas,” i.e., sealed under an inert gas atmosphere such that solution contents are not exposed to the atmosphere, and continuously extracted in a manner that allows solvent to flow into and out of the extraction tanks depicted in Figure 1. Though Example 8 refers to extracting reduced coenzyme Q10, the specification describes how to similarly extract oxidized coenzyme Q10. See, e.g., id. col. 17 ll. 1–5. By depicting solvent flowing into and out of the extraction tanks, the specification indicates that the “sealed tank” is not sealed to prevent entry or exit of all materials. In addition, the district court’s construction of “sealed tank” excludes Figure 1 and Example 8, which are the only examples of an industrial scale process, as the other examples describe lab-scale processes. A claim construction that excludes a preferred embodiment is “rarely, if ever, correct.” MBO Labs., Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co., 474 F.3d 1323, 1333 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (citation omitted). A construction that excludes all disclosed embodiKANEKA CORPORATION v. XIAMEN KINGDOMWAY 9 ments, such as the district court’s construction of the term “sealed tank,” is especially disfavored. See id. Defendants argue that because the patentee did not define the term “sealed,” the term must have one plain and ordinary meaning that governs. We disagree. An adjective such as “sealed” may have more than one plain and ordinary meaning. See, e.g., O2 Micro Int’l Ltd. v. Beyond Innovation Tech. Co., 521 F.3d 1351, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (recognizing that a term may have more than one “ordinary” meaning). Although the specification does not specifically define the term “sealed,” the appropriate definition can be ascertained from the specification. See Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1322–23. Defendants argue that “sealed” must be construed according to the dictionary definition because the written description never uses the term “sealed”—the patentee added the term “sealed” to the claims during prosecution. Defendants also highlight that Figure 1 does not label the tanks as “sealed.” We disagree that “sealed” must be construed using a dictionary. As in the written description context, word-for-word alignment of disclosed embodiments (such as the extraction tanks depicted in Figure 1) with claim language is unnecessary when the meaning of a claim term can be ascertained from the intrinsic record. See Fujikawa v. Wattanasin, 93 F.3d 1559, 1570 (Fed. Cir. 1996); Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1322–23. Accordingly, we hold that the term “sealed tank,” means “a tank that prevents exposure of the tank’s contents to the atmosphere.”