Court Opinion

ID: 9496878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:37:47.15429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:52.277160
License: Public Domain

DYK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting-in-part.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s affirmance of the district court’s judgment of non-infringement. The majority decision effectively limits the claims to the preferred embodiment, contrary to our recent decision in Liebel-Flarsheim Co. v. Medrad, Inc., 358 F.3d 898 (Fed.Cir.2004), and numerous other decisions of this court. In doing so, the majority decision attempts to work a major and unfortunate change in our recent claim construction jurisprudence.
The issue here is the meaning of the claim term “baffles,” which appears in each of the asserted claims of the '798 patent. I agree that “baffles” is not a means-plus-function term because, as the majority notes, “the word ‘baffle’ is a sufficient recitation of structure.” Ante at 1212. There is no dispute as to the plain meaning of the term “baffles.” The parties have stipulated that “baffles” are a “means for obstructing, impeding, or checking the flow of something.” Phillips v. AWH Corp., No. 97-MK-212, slip op. at 23 (D.Colo. Nov. 22, 2002); see also Webster’s Third New International Dictionary *1217162 (2002) (“Webster’s”) (defining baffles as “something for deflecting, checking, or otherwise regulating flow”). Indeed, the majority agrees that this is the “ordinary meaning.” Ante at 1212.
My dispute is with the majority’s imposition of an additional structural limitation based upon the patentee’s preferred embodiments that limits baffles to structures “oriented at angles other than 90°.” Ante at 1213. This is contrary to the plain meaning, and there is no suggestion that the patentee, acting as his own lexicographer, gave a special meaning to the term baffles. The majority marshals three arguments in support of limiting the claims to baffles oriented at angles other than 90°. None is convincing.
First, the majority concludes that baffles must be limited to structures oriented at angles other than 90° because “the paten-tee regarded his invention” as such, ante at 1212-13, describing only such baffles in the specification. It states that “baffles angled at other than 90° is the only embodiment disclosed in the patent; it is the invention.” Ante at 1213. We however have “expressly rejected the contention that if a patent describes only a single embodiment, the claims of the patent must be construed as being limited to that embodiment.” Liebel-Flarsheim, 358 F.3d at 906.
Our precedent also makes clear that “this court interprets] the pertinent claim language narrowly, not merely because the specification d[oes] not describe a broader embodiment, but because the specification, claim, or prosecution history ma[kes] clear that the invention is limited to a particular structure.” Liebel-Flarsheim, 358 F.3d at 907-08. As in Liebel-Flarsheim, the specification here does “not suggest that [baffles oriented at angles other than 90°] are an essential component of the invention, nor is there any language ... in the specification, that disclaims the use of the invention in the absence of [baffles oriented at angles other than 90°].” Id. at 908; see also Sunrace Roots Enter. Co. v. SRAM Corp., 336 F.3d 1298, 1305 (Fed.Cir.2003). Nor is this a case like SciMed Life Systems, Inc. v. Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., 242 F.3d 1337 (Fed.Cir.2001), where the specification specifically disclaimed non-disclosed embodiments by stating that the “structure defined above is the basic ... structure for all embodiments of the present invention contemplated and disclosed herein.” Id. at 1343 (quoting the patents at issue). The specification of the '798 patent contains no such language clearly limiting the claims to a specific structure.
Second, the majority contends that the baffles must be limited to structures oriented at angles other than 90° in order to realize the invention’s purpose of providing panels that are impact or projectile resistant. The theory for this departure from the broader plain meaning is that “[bjaffles directed at 90° cannot deflect projectiles as described in the '798 patent,” ante at 1213, and projectile deflection is critical because the “specification is rife with references to impact resistance, especially against projectiles such as bullets and bombs,” ante at 1212. The specification however merely identifies impact resistance as one of several objectives of the invention. The patent also identifies other objectives including “high load bearing strength” using “thinner guage [sic] steel panels,” '798 patent, col. 3, ll.16-25, and “thermal and acoustical isolation of two spaced walls,” id. at col. 6, 1.16.2 As we made clear in Liebel-Flarsheim, “[t]he fact that a patent *1218asserts that an invention achieves several objectives does not require that each of the claims be construed as limited to structures that are capable of achieving all of the objectives.” 358 F.3d at 908; see also E-Pass Techs., Inc. v. 3Com Corp., 343 F.3d 1364, 1370 (Fed.Cir.2003). So too, “[ajbsent a clear disclaimer of particular subject matter, the fact that the inventor may have anticipated that the invention would be used in a particular way does not mean that the scope of the invention is limited to that context.” Liebel-Flarsheim, 358 F.3d at 909 (quoting Northrop Grumman Corp. v. Intel Corp., 325 F.3d 1346, 1355 (Fed.Cir.2003)) (alteration in original). Here baffles that are oriented at 90°, and thus excluded under the majority’s construction, would still achieve the load bearing and thermal-acoustical isolation objectives taught in the specification. The identification of an objective that is not met when the claim is given its ordinary meaning is not in itself a disclaimer sufficient to narrow that ordinary meaning. This is particularly so here where impact or projectile resistance is separately identified as a claim limitation in claims 1-21, 23 and 24, thereby suggesting that the baffles and impact resistance limitations are separate.
Finally, the majority relies on the fact that “[bjaffles directed at 90° ... in any event, are disclosed in the prior art,” ante at 1213, perhaps suggesting that the claim would be invalid if given a broader meaning. But the fact that a feature of the invention may have been described in the prior art hardly raises serious questions of invalidity. See, e.g., Schering Corp. v. Geneva Pharms., Inc., 339 F.3d 1373, 1377 (Fed.Cir.2003) (“[AJnticipation [occurs] if a single prior art reference discloses each and every limitation of the claimed invention.” (emphasis added)). Even if there were such questions, this also is no excuse to depart from the plain meaning of the claims. The “axiom” that claims should be construed to preserve validity is not an invitation to narrowly construe unambiguous claim language contrary to its plain meaning. See, e.g., Liebel-Flarsheim, 358 F.3d at 911; Elekta Instrument S.A. v. O.U.R. Scientific Intl., Inc., 214 F.3d 1302, 1309 (Fed.Cir.2000). Nor, was there here an effort to distinguish the prior art on the basis that prior art baffles were oriented at 90° angles. See SciMed, 242 F.3d at 1343.
Simply put, there is no reason to supplement the plain meaning of the claim language with a limitation from the preferred embodiment. By limiting “baffles” to structures “oriented at angles other than 90°,” ante at 1213, the majority has misconstrued not only the claims, but our precedent as well. Limiting the claims to the preferred embodiment as the majority has done is quite inconsistent with our cases which consistently reject the notion that the claims are limited to the preferred embodiment. Liebel-Flarsheim, 358 F.3d at 906, see also, e.g., ACTV, Inc. v. Walt Disney Co., 346 F.3d 1082, 1091 (Fed.Cir.2003); E-Pass, 343 F.3d at 1369; Apex Inc. v. Raritan Computer, Inc., 325 F.3d 1364, 1373 (Fed.Cir.2003); Teleflex, Inc. v. Ficosa N. Am. Corp., 299 F.3d 1313, 1327 (Fed.Cir.2002).
II
Discarding the majority’s approach of limiting the claims to the preferred embodiment, the question remains as to the correct construction of the claims. Since there is no argument here that one of skill in the art would ascribe a specialized meaning to the term baffles, and there has been no disclaimer in the specification or prosecution history, the general purpose dictionary definition, “something for deflecting, checking, or otherwise regulating flow,” Webster’s at 162, applies. See Texas Digital Sys., Inc. v. Telegenix, Inc., 308 *1219F.3d 1193, 1203-04 (Fed.Cir.2002); see also, e.g., Kumar v. Ovonic Battery Co., 351 F.3d 1364, 1367 (Fed.Cir.2003); E-Pass Techs., 343 F.3d at 1367-68.
The district court’s grant of summary judgment should be vacated because it was based solely on the erroneous construction of baffles and the patentee’s concession that the accused product did not contain baffles as so defined. I do not reach the district court’s construction of other claim terms or the question of whether summary judgment of non-infringement could or should be granted on other grounds. I agree with the majority opinion on the trade secret claim.

. This “thermal and acoustical isolation” refers to the lack of a continuous link across the interior of the panels. Since the baffles on each side of the panel’s interior do not physically touch, the flow of sound and heat from one side to the other is restricted.