Opinion ID: 209426
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claim Construction of “corresponding to”

Text: Respironics also contends that the phrase “corresponding to” means something more than just “equal to.” For the reasons stated above, our review here is limited to the term’s use in the “sensing” step of the ’517 patent’s claim 29, which recites: “sensing a fluid characteristic associated with the flow of breathing gas and outputting a signal corresponding to the fluid characteristic.” (emphasis added). In this context, we agree with Respironics that “corresponding to” is broader than “equal to.” This particular step recites a “fluid characteristic,” which we have construed, supra, to mean flow rate or volume. It would make no sense, then, to say that a flow rate or volume is “equal to” a signal, when the specification speaks of electrical signals that are typically measured in units of voltage or current. Two such things cannot be equal to one another. Rather, it is more proper to say that the two are functionally related to one another: the magnitude of the outputted signal varies as a function of the magnitude of the sensed flow rate or volume. These two things “correspond to” one another in the sense that they are 2008-1164, -1193 25 “similar, comparable, and/or matching”—the term’s plain and ordinary meaning. Because the modified construction is broader than the construction under which infringement was found, our modification of “corresponding to” does not disturb the finding of infringement.