Court Opinion

ID: 9495038
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:53:04.877013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:46.855949
License: Public Domain

CLEVENGER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority’s resolution of the validity, damages, and attorney fees issues as well as its determination that the district court did not abuse its discretion in precluding Bridgewood from asserting noninfringement of claims 1-4 and 12 as a sanction for various discovery abuses. Furthermore, I agree with the majority that the district court properly granted summary judgment to Bridgewood on Transclean’s trademark infringement claim. However, in my view the majority’s construction of the term “resilient” in claim 13 is unduly narrow and departs from the term’s ordinary meaning. There*1381fore, I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority’s opinion vacating the district court’s claim construction and the jury’s finding of infringement as to that claim.
This case asks us to decide the meaning of the word “resilient.” That word is not defined in the specification. Indeed, “resilient” appears in the patent exactly once-in claim 13:
The apparatus of claim 1 in which the means for equalizing the flow is comprised of means disposed intermediate the fluid receiver and source, said means exhibiting resilient characteristics for exerting a force, related to the pressure existing in the fluid circulation circuit of said transmission and said receiver, upon the fluid in said source.
U.S. Patent No. 5,318,080, col. 8, lines 55-61 (emphasis added). Because the paten-tee has not chosen to be his own lexicographer in this instance, “resilient” should carry its ordinary meaning in the art. Transclean asserts that “resilient” encompasses the ability to return to an original shape or position after being compressed, while Bridgewood argues that a resident means must be capable of returning to an original shape and position after being compressed-in other words, that it must be inherently elastic.
To help us divine the meaning of “resilient,” Transclean has provided dictionary definitions of “resilient” as well as expert testimony regarding what one of skill in the art would understand the term to mean. In contrast, Bridgewood proffers definitions of “resilience” from technical dictionaries. The district court properly rejected Bridgwood’s definitions of “resilience” and adopted instead the ordinary meaning of the actual claim term, resilient The majority, based on the supposed superiority of technical dictionaries over ordinary dictionaries, prefers Bridgewood’s definition.
The district court gave the word “resilient” its ordinary dictionary meaning, possessing “the capability of ‘returning to an original shape or position, as after having been compressed.’ ” Transclean Corp. v. Bridgewood Services, Inc., 77 F.Supp.2d 1045, 1087 (D.Minn.1999) (quoting American Heritage Dictionary 1535 (3d ed.1992) (emphasis added)). In other words, the broad term “resilient characteristics” can include a variety of different properties such as the ability to return to an original position after being exposed to a force, or the ability to return to an original shape after having been deformed. This meaning is in accord with the definition found in other common dictionaries. See, e.g., Websters Third New International Dictionary (unabridged) 1932 (defining resilient as “returning freely to a previous position, shape or condition: as a: moving swiftly back ... b: capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture ... c: SPRINGY _” (first emphasis added)); Oxford English Dictionary 714 (2d Ed.1989) (defining resilient as “1. Returning to the original position; springing back, recoiling, etc.” and “2. Resuming the original shape or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched”); Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1638 (2d ed.1993) (defining resilient as “1. springing back; rebounding” and “2. returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched”) (emphasis added). This meaning is in accord with the expert testimony proffered by Transclean, which explained that the patent uses the term resilient to mean “returning to the, some earlier position ... or shape.”
To support its proposed definition, Bridgewood cites various technical dictionaries that, supposedly, define “ ‘resilient’ or ‘resilience.’ ” A closer examination of these sources reveals, however, that the technical definitions provided by Bridge-*1382wood in fact relate the definition of “resilience” and not “resilient.” And, unlike “resilient,” “resilience” generally refers to the stored energy of a strained-and typically elastic-material. For example, Van Nost-rand’s Scientific Encyclopedia 2673 (8th ed.1995) defines resilience as follows: “resilience of a body measures the extent to which energy may be stored in it by elastic deformation.” The Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering 314 (4th ed.1996) defines resilience as “[t]he stored energy of a strained or elastic material, such as in a compressed spring or in rubber dampers, which have inherent damping properties.” See also Chambers Dictionary of Science and Technology 980 (1999) (defining resilience as the “[s]tored energy of a strained material, or the work done per unit volume of an elastic material by a bending moment, force, torque or shear force, in producing strain”).
The majority chooses to rely upon Bridgewood’s proffered definitions of “resilience” rather than the ordinary meaning of the actual claim term, “resilient,” for two reasons. First, the majority finds that technical dictionaries are generally superi- or to common dictionaries. While dicta in Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc. v. Covad Communications Group, Inc., 262 F.3d 1258, 1267, 59 USPQ2d 1865, 1870 (Fed.Cir.2001), states the view that technical dictionaries are preferred to common dictionaries, neither that case nor the case upon which it relied, Multiform Desiccants, Inc. v. Medzam, Ltd., 133 F.3d 1473, 45 USPQ2d 1429 (Fed.Cir.1998), involved a conflict between a common dictionary definition and that found in a scientific treatise-and neither does this case. The technical definitions are simply inapt because they define the wrong word-resilience instead of resilient. Indeed, the “common dictionaries” rejected by the majority are the only sources before the court that define both resilient and resilience, and notably, they define resilience in the same way as the supposedly superior technical dictionaries. For example, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1932 (1993) defines resilience as follows:
la: an act of springing back: REBOUND, RECOIL, ELASTICITY b: capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation, esp. when the strain is caused by compressive stresses-called also elastic resilience 2: the recoverable potential energy of an elastic solid body or structure due to its having been subjected to stress not exceeding the elastic limit.
(Second emphasis added.) While it may often be preferable to look to a technical dictionary or treatise to provide the technical definition of a term as understood by practitioners of a particular art, I think that preference must fade when the technical dictionary does not provide a definition of the precise term used in the claim language. Therefore, I would hold that the trial court properly adopted the common dictionary definition of “resilient” as proffered by Transclean.
The majority shores up its view of the correct meaning for “resilient” by holding that the phrase “exhibiting resilient characteristics for exerting a force” does not describe part of the function of the “means for equalizing the flow” limitation. I disagree with that holding, for it is clear to me that the “exhibiting resilient characteristics” phrase does define function. If I am correct on this point, then of course it is impermissible to define the function by reference to structure disclosed in the written description. Function must be defined by reference to ordinary principles of claim interpretation, before proceeding to determine corresponding structure. See Kemco Sales, Inc. v. Control Papers Co., 208 F.3d 1352, 1361, 54 USPQ2d 1308, 1313 (Fed.Cir.2000). The majority does not disagree with me on this point: if the phrase in question defines function, then *1383resort to the specification to find structure to define the function is simply wrong, and ordinary tools of claim interpretation apply-
Instead, the majority holds that the phrase in question is actually part of the means for equalizing the flow, and that resort to the specification is required to find the structure corresponding to the means limitation. Thus, from the specification the majority fetches the flexible rubber-like diaphragm, and thereupon concludes that “exhibiting resilient characteristics” must require initial shape deformation because that is the characteristic of the diaphragm.
The majority’s rationale is self-destructive. If the diaphragm is indeed the structure that corresponds to the “means for equalizing the flow” limitation-as both parties and all the judges on the case agree-then the majority must come to grips with the stark fact that the jury found that the piston structure in Bridgewood’s device is structurally equivalent, for § 112 ¶ 6 infringement purposes, to the diaphragm disclosed in Figure 3. Indeed, the case was submitted to the jury precisely to resolve disputed issues of fact on the structural equivalence of the accused piston and the diaphragm structure. No question has been raised that substantial evidence does not support the jury’s verdict. Consequently, if, as the majority holds, “exhibiting resilient characteristics for exerting a force” must be understood as merely “further defining] the structure of [the] means,” ante at 1375, there is no possible basis for disturbing the jury’s verdict of infringement.
In short, the majority is wrong on any interpretation of the disputed phrase. If the phrase describes function, it must be interpreted by ordinary interpretative canons, as did the district court. If the phrase is to be interpreted as part of the means limitation, as the majority holds, then the jury verdict of infringement must stand. Either way, the jury verdict of infringement cannot properly be upset, and I respectfully dissent from the majority on this point.