Opinion ID: 786974
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fuel Reservoir

Text: 26 TI Group first argues that the district court's construction of the term fuel reservoir is too narrow and is not consistent with the written description of the patent. In particular, the district court construed the term to mean the portion of the apparatus for pumping fuel in which fuel is collected and retained apart from fuel in the fuel tank. Markman Order at 1. TI Group argues that this definition unnecessarily imports the limitation of retaining fuel apart from the fuel in the fuel tank and is inconsistent with both the term's ordinary and customary meaning and the term's usage in the written description. Instead, TI Group urges that we adopt the broadest dictionary definition as the ordinary and customary meaning of the term reservoir — any receptacle for fluids. 13 The Oxford English Dictionary 703-04 (2d ed. 1989). VDO argues, in response, that the correct construction of reservoir is one of the more narrow definitions provided in the dictionary: a part of some apparatus in which fluid or liquid is contained, id., or a part of an apparatus in which a liquid is held, Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1931 (1986) ( Webster's ). 27 The dictionary entries for reservoir in both The Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's have several definitions that are facially relevant to the claimed invention. Each of the definitions implicates some sort of containment of liquid. Even the definition urged by TI Group, i.e., any receptacle for fluids, requires that the fluid be retained apart or contained. See 13 The Oxford English Dictionary 320 (2d ed. 1989) (defining receptacle as that which receives and holds a thing; ... a containing vessel, place, or space (emphases added)). Thus, TI Group's argument that the district court's construction is unduly narrow is not persuasive. The notion of retaining or containing liquid in the receptacle is a common theme in each of the dictionary definitions. As the district court correctly observed, in the context of this invention, the fuel in the reservoir is contained, or held apart, from the fuel in the fuel tank. 28 The written description fully supports the ordinary meaning of the term reservoir identified by the district court, and there is no indication that TI Group disclaimed or disavowed meaning or acted as its own lexicographer in giving the term another meaning. We therefore affirm the district court's definition of the term reservoir as meaning the portion of the apparatus for pumping fuel in which fuel is collected and retained apart from fuel in the fuel tank.