Opinion ID: 779640
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: display areas and background area

Text: 70 The patents in suit recite display areas and background area at several locations in the asserted claims. For example, claim 1 of the '619 patent recites a plurality of variable color display areas...; [and] a variable color background area.... The district court instructed the jury: 71 Display areas and the background areas include any illuminated pixel anywhere on the display device with background pixels illuminated to substantially surround the illuminated display area pixels. As the image for illuminated display area changes, so does the adjacent illuminated background area.  72 Telegenix argues that the jury should have been instructed that the display areas are distinct from the background areas, that display areas cannot become background areas, and that background areas cannot become display areas. TDS argues that the claims encompass display areas arranged in the form of an array or matrix of areas, and as such the display areas and background areas are interchangeable. 73 Beginning with the words of the claims themselves, the dictionary meaning of display is [a] visually observable presentation of information.... Illustrated Dictionary of Electronics 147 (3rd ed.1985). Background is defined as: [the] context or supporting area of a picture.... Id. at 43. Thus, the ordinary meaning of display area, as reflected in these dictionary definitions, is an area designated to portray information. Background is ordinarily understood to provide the context or contrasting reference against which the displayed information is presented. The ordinary meaning of these limitations does not indicate that the display and background areas are interchangeable. 74 The specification of the '619 patent is consistent with an interpretation in which the display and background areas are distinct and not interchangeable. For example, the written description describes the invention as including a variable color display area and a variable color background area 32, substantially surrounding the display area. '619 patent, col. 2, ll. 16-21. The specifications of the patents in suit do not establish that display areas can become background areas, nor do they allow for their interchangeable use. 75 The specification of the '890 patent describes illuminating selected display areas in the background color to blend with the background to provide maximum color contrast. '890 patent, col. 2, ll. 41-54. However, this establishes only that the inventor contemplated that display areas could function similar to the background areas, not that the display and background areas could be interchangeable. 76 Looking to the prosecution history, there is additional evidence supporting a construction that the display and background areas are mutually exclusive. The inventor stated in response to a rejection: [claims 1 and 2], similar to claim 13 which was not explicitly rejected, are distinguished from the prior art by the recitation of background regions separated from the display areas by opaque walls. No reference of the record describes explicitly defined background regions. This evidence of manifest exclusion or restriction represents a clear disavowal of claim scope. See Teleflex, 299 F.3d at 1325, 63 USPQ2d at 1381. In doing so, the patentee expressly limited background areas to explicitly defined regions. In addition, the patent examiner stated in his notice of allowance, [t]he prior art does not show the combination of variable color display areas and a variable color background area; these being two discrete, distinct components of the device. It is this distinction which, as claimed, is deemed allowable over the prior art. 77 The ordinary meaning of the words of the claims, coupled with the patentee's statements in the specification and during prosecution, establish that the district court's instruction was in error. Although the specification indicates that a display area can be illuminated in the background color to blend with the background to provide maximum color contrast, there is no corresponding indication that the background areas can be illuminated in the display color. The district court's construction that background areas can include any illuminated pixel anywhere on the display device is incompatible with the patentee's statements during prosecution expressly limiting the background areas to explicitly defined background regions. 78 Moreover, if the background and display areas could each include any illuminated pixel, the background area would not be different in nature or quality from the display area. Such a proposition is inconsistent with the language of the claims, in which the inventor claimed a device having two types of areas, and with the specification which describes distinct display areas and background areas. 79 On the basis of the ordinary meaning of the words of the claim and the intrinsic evidence, we conclude that these limitations should be construed as follows: display areas include any illuminated pixel anywhere on the display device, other than background area pixels in defined background regions. The background area pixels substantially surround the illuminated display area pixels. Display area pixels may be illuminated in the background color, but background area pixels may not be illuminated in the display color. 80