Opinion ID: 446865
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prosecution Histories

Text: 68 Lemelson asserts that the lower court committed reversible error by failing to construe the claims in light of their prosecution histories, citing SSIH Equipment S.A. v. USITC, 718 F.2d at 376, 218 USPQ at 688, where this court said that the prosecution history is always relevant to a proper interpretation of a claim. 69 The court received the prosecution histories into evidence en masse near the beginning of the trial without objection by the defendants. However, in its decision, the court said that the prosecution histories of the patents in suit and their implications have not been adduced and that the claims would be construed without their benefit. The appellees suggest that Lemelson is presenting a de novo file history argument on appeal because (1) Lemelson never argued the file wrappers in his pre-trial brief or in his brief in opposition to defendants' motion to dismiss, (2) Lemelson's expert witness admitted at trial that he had not reviewed the file wrappers in preparing his infringement opinion, and (3) Lemelson did not refer to, mention, or use so much as one page of any file wrapper in presenting his case in chief. 70 This court will not reach the appellees' argument that Lemelson waived his right to seek review of the prosecution history issue because we are faced with an inadequate record on the point. We assume, therefore, that Lemelson properly raises the issue and we agree with Lemelson that the lower court erred in not considering the prosecution histories of the patents in suit. The prosecution histories being admitted into evidence, the court should have considered them in its construction of the claims. SSIH Equipment S.A. v. USITC, 718 F.2d at 376, 218 USPQ at 688; Fromson v. Advance Offset Plate, Inc., 720 F.2d 1565, 1569-71, 219 USPQ 1137, 1140-41 (Fed.Cir.1983); McGill Inc. v. John Zink Co., 736 F.2d 666, 673, 221 USPQ 944, 949 (Fed.Cir.1984). Nevertheless, after examining the prosecution history as argued by Lemelson on appeal for the '042 patent in conjunction with claim 1 and the specification, we are unpersuaded that the lower court erred in interpreting the '042 patent. The court's failure to consider the prosecution history of the '042 patent was, therefore, harmless error not meriting reversal. Gardner v. TEC Systems, Inc., 725 F.2d at 1350, 220 USPQ at 786. 71 Lemelson's arguments that clear factual errors, regarding operation and structure of the accused CMMs, infected the Claims Court's conclusion of non-infringement of the '042 patent are similarly insubstantial. Notwithstanding what appears to be the Claims Court's incorrect labeling of and reference to the probe shaft on the accused devices, we do not see that the court thereby committed clear error in applying claim 1 to the accused CMMs. None of the asserted errors infect the finding that the manipulation means of claim 1, directed to prepositioning of the workpiece, is not present in the accused structures.