Opinion ID: 211768
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: “imports into the United States”

Text: Because the jury’s instruction on direct infringement by RIM included the act of importing, we must consider next whether the jury could have found that RIM imported any of the processes covered by the asserted method claims in violation of section 271(a). Like the sell and offer to sell provisions discussed supra, the question of whether a method claim can be infringed by importation is a difficult one conceptually. The legislative history cited with respect to the sell and offer to sell provisions indicates that Congress did not consider the “import” prong of section 271(a) to apply to method claims. However, we need not decide that broad issue. We hold only that for the same reasons that the jury could not have found that RIM infringed the method claims under the sale or offer for sale prongs, it could not have found infringement by importation under the facts of this case.