Opinion ID: 561224
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Infringement by the Type II Door

Text: 20 As the district court correctly found, the Type II door meets every limitation of claim 1 except for the last one, i.e., the requirement of a releasable latch means operatively arranged between said head portion and said sleeve for releasably retaining said head in a retracted position adjacent said collar (emphasis added). Thus, the sole question with respect to infringement is whether a pivot rod assembly which uses a separate removable styrofoam wedge to hold the pivot rod in the retracted position is equivalent to one which has the latch means recited above. 21 The district court, as evidenced, for example, by the language on page 13 of its opinion, appears to have been overly concerned with the fact that the Type II door was deliberately designed to avoid infringement of the Ford patent. Intentional designing around the claims of a patent is not by itself a wrong which must be compensated by invocation of the doctrine of equivalents. Designing around patents is, in fact, one of the ways in which the patent system works to the advantage of the public in promoting progress in the useful arts, its constitutional purpose. Inherent in our claim-based patent system is also the principle that the protected invention is what the claims say it is, and thus that infringement can be avoided by avoiding the language of the claims. See generally, Texas Instruments, Inc. v. U.S.I.T.C., 805 F.2d 1558, 1572, 231 USPQ 833, 841-42 (Fed.Cir.1986). It is only when the changes are so insubstantial as to result in a fraud on the patent that application of the equitable doctrine of equivalents becomes desirable. Id.; Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Products Co., 339 U.S. 605, 608, 70 S.Ct. 854, 856, 94 L.Ed. 1097 85 USPQ 328, 330 (1950). 22 Thus, the first question which must be asked is has a substantial change been made? Only if the answer to that question is no should an accused infringer be liable for improperly trying to appropriate the claimed invention. This is where the Graver Tank tripartite test comes into play; the differences between an accused device and a claimed device are considered to be insubstantial only when the accused device performs substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve substantially the same result as the claimed device. The determination of whether an accused device meets this strict test is one of fact. See Sun Studs Inc. v. ATA Equipment Leasing Inc., 872 F.2d 978, 986, 10 USPQ2d 1338, 1345 (Fed.Cir.1989). 23 In the present case, as often happens in doctrine of equivalents cases, there is no material dispute about the function and the result prongs of the test. Both the claimed pivot rod assembly and the corresponding but different assembly of the Type II door have a means which engages the pivot rod so as to hold it in a retracted position during shipment and assembly. The question is whether they do so in substantially the same way. We are convinced that the district court's finding that they do is clearly erroneous. 24 First of all, we note that the claimed invention is a mechanical combination in a crowded field (a total of 34 patents are listed on the reissue application as having been considered by the examiner). Such an invention is entitled only to a narrow scope of equivalents. See Sun Studs, 872 F.2d at 987, 10 USPQ2d at 1346. Furthermore, the Kinkead styrofoam wedge operates in a substantially different way from the claimed latching means, which Kinkead has eliminated. The wedge is a separate piece, placed at the lower part of the assembly. It acts as a friction device, not only between the pivot rod and the sleeve, but also the facing sheet of the door. The claimed latching means, on the other hand, is indeed a latch which acts between the upper part of the sleeve and the head portion of the pivot rod. As its name implies, the latching means latches, i.e., grabs onto the head portion of the pivot rod. A latch and a wedge, applied in different locations, have very different modes of operation and we are left with a firm conviction that Kinkead's modification with respect to the Type II door results in a device which does not operate in substantially the same way, and thus was sufficient to avoid infringement under the doctrine of equivalents. It does not meet the Graver test. Accordingly, the district court's finding to the contrary is reversed. The Type II door is not an infringement.