Court Opinion

ID: 9494901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:49:36.982861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:41.510274
License: Public Domain

RADER, Circuit Judge,
with whom MAYER, Chief Judge, joins,
concurring.
While endorsing the results and reasoning of the court, I would offer an alternative reasoning. This alternative would also help reconcile the preeminent notice function of patent claims with the protective function of the doctrine of equivalents. This reconciling principle is simple: the doctrine of equivalents does not capture subject matter that the patent drafter reasonably could have foreseen during the application process and included in the claims. This principle enhances the notice function of claims by making them the sole definition of invention scope in all foreseeable circumstances. This principle also protects patentees against copyists who employ insubstantial variations to expropriate the claimed invention in some unforeseeable circumstances.
Few problems have vexed this court more than articulating discernible standards for non-textual infringement. On the one hand, the Supreme Court has recognized that the doctrine of equivalents provides essential protection for inventions: “[T]o permit imitation of a patented invention which does not copy every literal detail would be to convert the protection of the patent grant into a hollow and useless thing ... leaving] room for indeed encouraging] the unscrupulous copyist to make unimportant and insubstantial changes.” Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Prods. Co., 339 U.S. 605, 607, 70 S.Ct. 854, 94 L.Ed. 1097 (1950). The protective function of non-textual infringement, however, has a price. Recently, the Supreme Court acknowledged that a broad doctrine of equivalents can threaten the notice function of claims: “There can be no denying that the doctrine of equivalents, when applied broadly, conflicts with the definitional and public-notice functions of the statutory claiming requirement.” Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chem. Co., 520 U.S. 17, 29, 117 S.Ct. 1040, 137 L.Ed.2d 146 (1997). These competing policies make it difficult to set a standard that protects the patentee against insubstantial changes while simultaneously providing the public with adequate notice of potentially infringing behavior.
In general, the Supreme Court and this court have attempted to deal with these competing principles by placing limits on non-textual infringement. Thus, in fur*1057therance of the notice objective, Pennwalt and Warner-Jenkinson require an equivalent for each and every element of a claim (applying the doctrine of equivalents to the claim as a whole gives too much room to enforce the claim beyond its notifying limitations). Pennwalt Corp. v. Durand-Wayland, Inc., 833 F.2d 931, 935, 4 USPQ2d 1737, 1740 (Fed.Cir.1987) (citing Lemelson v. United States, 752 F.2d 1538, 1551, 224 USPQ 526, 533 (Fed.Cir.1985)); Warner-Jenkinson, 520 U.S. at 40, 117 S.Ct. 1040. Similarly, to enhance notice, Festo and Wamer-Jenkinson propose to bar paten-tees from expanding their claim to embrace subject matter surrendered during the patent acquisition process. Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., 234 F.3d 558, 564-65, 56 USPQ2d 1865, 1868-70 (Fed.Cir.2000); Warner-Jenkinson, 520 U.S. at 34, 117 S.Ct. 1040. Finally, Wilson Sporting Goods prevents the doctrine of equivalents from expanding claim scope to embrace prior art. Wilson Sporting Goods Co. v. David Geoffrey & Assocs., 904 F.2d 677, 683, 14 USPQ2d 1942, 1947-48 (Fed.Cir.1990).
Perhaps more than each of these other restraints on non-textual infringement, a foreseeability bar would concurrently serve both the predominant notice function of the claims and the protective function of the doctrine of equivalents. When one of ordinary skill in the relevant art would foresee coverage of an invention, a patent drafter has an obligation to claim those foreseeable limits. This rule enhances the notice function of claims by making them the sole definition of invention scope in all foreseeable circumstances. When the skilled artisan cannot have foreseen a variation that copyists employ to evade the literal text of the claims, the rule permits the patentee to attempt to prove that an “insubstantial variation” warrants a finding of non-textual infringement. In either event, the claims themselves and the prior art erect a foreseeability bar that circumscribes the protective function of non-textual infringement. Thus, foreseeability sets an objective standard for assessing when to apply the doctrine of equivalents.
A foreseeability bar thus places a premium on claim drafting and enhances the notice function of claims. To restate, if one of ordinary skill in the relevant art would reasonably anticipate ways to evade the literal claim language, the patent applicant has an obligation to cast its claims to provide notice of that coverage. In other words, the patentee has an obligation to draft claims that capture all reasonably foreseeable ways to practice the invention. The doctrine of equivalents would not rescue a claim drafter who does not provide such notice. Foreseeability thus places a premium on notice while reserving a limited role for the protective function of the doctrine of equivalents.
This court actually already has articulated this foreseeability principle in the context of the doctrine of equivalents. Six months after the Supreme Court decided Warner-Jenkinson, this court decided Sage Prods., Inc. v. Devon Indus., Inc., 126 F.3d 1420, 44 USPQ2d 1103 (Fed.Cir.1997). In that case, this court found no infringement, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents, of a patent on a disposal system for sharp medical instruments. Id. at 1421. When addressing the doctrine of equivalents issue, this court applied the foreseeability bar:
The claim at issue defines a relatively simple structural device. A skilled patent drafter would foresee the limiting potential of the “over said slot” limitation. No subtlety of language or complexity of the technology, nor any subsequent change in the state of the art, such as later-developed technology, obfuscated the significance of this limitation at *1058the time of its incorporation into the claim. If Sage desired broad patent protection for any container that performed a function similar to its claimed container, it could have sought claims with fewer structural encumbrances. Had Sage done so, then the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) could have fulfilled its statutory role in helping to ensure that exclusive rights issue only to those who have, in fact, contributed something new, useful, and unobvious. Instead, Sage left the PTO with manifestly limited claims that it now seeks to expand through the doctrine of equivalents. However, as between the patentee who had a clear opportunity to negotiate broader claims but did not do so, and the public at large, it is the patentee who must bear the cost of its failure to seek protection for this foreseeable alteration of its claimed structure.
Id. at 1425 (emphasis added; footnotes and citations omitted). The Sage court emphasized that a “skilled patent drafter would foresee the limiting potential of the ‘over the slot’ limitation.” Id. Thus, the court barred application of the doctrine of equivalents “for this foreseeable alteration of [the] claimed structure.” Id.
In Sage, this court also noted specifically some types of subject matter that may not be foreseeable during the application process subject matter arising from a “subsequent change in the state of the art, such as later-developed technology,” id.; see also Warner-Jenkinson, 520 U.S. at 37, 117 S.Ct. 1040 (noting that the doctrine extends to after-arising technology); Al Site Corp. v. VSI Int'l, Inc., 174 F.3d 1308, 1320, 50 USPQ2d 1161, 1168 (Fed.Cir.1999) (“An ‘after-arising’ technology could thus infringe under the doctrine of equivalents without infringing literally as a § 112, ¶ 6 equivalent.”); Pennwalt, 833 F.2d at 938 (“[T]he facts here do not involve later-developed computer technology which should be deemed within the scope of the claims to avoid the pirating of an invention.”), or subject matter cloaked by the “subtlety of language or complexity of the technology,” 126 F.3d at 1425; see also Mahn v. Harwood, 112 U.S. 354, 361, 5 S.Ct. 174, 28 L.Ed. 665 (1884) (“If the specification is complicated and the claim is ambiguous or involved, the patentee may be entitled to greater indulgence; and of this the court can rightfully judge in each case.”).
Sage is not the only case to acknowledge the value of a foreseeability limit on non-textual infringement. Fin Control Sys. Pty, Ltd. v. OAM, Inc., 265 F.3d 1311, 1320-21, 60 USPQ2d 1203, 1209-10 (Fed.Cir.2001); SciMed Life Sys., Inc. v. Advanced Cardiovascular Sys., Inc., 242 F.3d 1337, 1346-47, 58 USPQ2d 1059, 1066-67 (Fed.Cir.2001); Zodiac Pool Care, Inc. v. Hoffinger Indus., Inc., 206 F.3d 1408, 1416, 54 USPQ2d 1141, 1147 (Fed.Cir.2000); Moore U.S.A, Inc. v. Standard Register Co., 229 F.3d 1091, 1106, 56 USPQ2d 1225, 1235 (Fed.Cir.2000); Antonious v. Spalding & Evenflo Cos., 44 F.Supp.2d 732, 738 (D.Md.1998), aff'd in part, rev’d in part, 217 F.3d 849 (Fed.Cir.1999); Kinzenbaw v. Deere & Co., 741 F.2d 383, 389, 222 USPQ 929, 933 (Fed.Cir.1984). In one of those cases, Kinzenbaw v. Deere & Co., this court concluded that the “doctrine of equivalents is designed to protect inventors from unscrupulous copyists ... and unanticipated equivalents.” 741 F.2d at 389 (emphasis added). Referencing a case involving after-arising technology, the Federal Circuit did not require the patent applicant to claim “all future developments which enable the practice of [each limitation of] his invention in substantially the same way.” Id. (quoting Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States, 717 F.2d 1351, 1362, 219 USPQ 473, 481 (Fed.*1059Cir.1983) (a case involving after-arising technology, namely microprocessors installed on board a satellite)). In other words, the court acknowledged the role of foreseeability in enforcing the doctrine of equivalents. Nonetheless, prosecution history estoppel precluded the patentee’s reliance on non-textual infringement. The court explained further that the variation from the claims was neither copied nor unforeseeable to the patentee at the time of filing. In reaching this result, the court suggested that if variation had been unforeseeable during the application process, the doctrine of equivalents would still have been available to the patentee. Id.
Finally, turning more specifically to the issue in this case, in Maxwell v. J. Baker, Inc., 86 F.3d 1098, 39 USPQ2d 1001 (Fed.Cir.1996), this court again dealt with the doctrine of equivalents. This court found that “Maxwell limited her claims to fastening tabs attached between the inner and outer soles.” Id. at 1108. This court underscored that one of ordinary skill in the shoe industry would have discerned from reading the patent that the drafter could have foreseen and claimed the alternative shoe attachment system, but declined to do so. Id. Thus, this court concluded that Maxwell had dedicated the alternative attachment system to the public. Id. While not expressly invoking foreseeability as in Sage and Kinzenbaw, this court relied on the perspective of one of skill in the art, thus suggesting that objective foreseeability adds weight to its foreclosure of equivalents.
In this case, Johnston’s '050 patent claimed only a “sheet of aluminum” and “the aluminum sheet” twice specifying the aluminum limitation. The patent specification then expressly mentioned other potential substrate metals, including stainless steel, col. 5, 11. 5-10. Johnston’s patent disclosure expressly admits that it foresaw other metals serving as substrates. Yet the patent did not claim anything beyond aluminum. Foreseeability bars Johnston from recapturing as an equivalent subject matter not claimed but disclosed. In Sage terms, “as between [Johnston] who had a clear opportunity to negotiate broader claims but did not do so, and the public at large, it is [Johnston] who must bear the cost of its failure to seek protection for this foreseeable alteration of its claimed structure.” 126 F.3d at 1425.
Foreseeability relegates non-textual infringement to its appropriate exceptional place in patent policy. The doctrine of equivalents should not rescue claim drafters who fail to give accurate notice of an invention’s scope in the claims. The Patent Act supplies a correction process for applicants who have claimed “more or less than [they] had a right to claim in the patent.” 35 U.S.C. §§ 251, 252 (2001). The doctrine of equivalents need not duplicate the statute’s means of correcting claiming errors.
Implicit in the protective function of the doctrine of equivalents is the notion that the patentees could not have protected themselves with reasonable care and foresight. Enforcing this Sage principle more aggressively will help achieve a better balance between the notice function of claims and the protective function of non-textual infringement.