Court Opinion

ID: 9497945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:04:18.642542+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:31.311245
License: Public Domain

PAULINE NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree with the court’s judgment as to both infringement and validity. I write separately to express my concern at the court’s decision not to review the entirety of the appealed claim construction, my colleagues on the panel declining to review any appealed aspect of the district court’s construction other than whether the “whereby” clause limits the claim. Supreme Court precedent and practical appellate obligation require our review of the appealed subject matter when that subject matter may be relevant to further review or other proceedings involving the patent. The claim construction was fully litigated and fully decided by the district court, and several aspects thereof are challenged on this appeal. All of the disputed aspects of the district court’s claim construction were fully briefed and fully argued; they warrant appellate resolution, not appellate silence.
The Supreme Court has explained that it is inappropriate for the Federal Circuit to decline appellate review of patent issues that were decided by the district court, when these issues may arise on further appeal to the Court or in other litigation of the same patent. In Cardinal Chemical Co. v. Morton International, Inc., 508 U.S. 83, 113 S.Ct. 1967, 124 L.Ed.2d 1 (1993), the Court held that if the issue of validity was decided by the district court it could be considered on appeal to the Court, and thus requires intervening review by the intermediate Federal Circuit:
The Federal Circuit’s determination that the patents were not infringed is subject to review in this Court, and if we reverse that determination, we are not prevented from considering the question of validity merely because a lower court thought it superfluous.
Id. at 97, 113 S.Ct. 1967.
In the accompanying opinion this court construes only one claim term, albeit in a manner that negates infringement. However, as the Court teaches in Cardinal Chemical, this does not moot the disputed issues of construction of other claim terms, for those issues could be raised on further appeal or in further litigation. In this case the district court relied not only on the “whereby” clause on which this panel re*1333lies, but also on the construction of other terms in other clauses; and in turn, the inventor Hoffer has presented cogent arguments for modification of the district court’s construction of some other terms. The Federal Circuit need not and should not truncate our review when disputed aspects of the district court’s claim construction can be relevant to further, enforcement of the patent and possible challenges to validity as well as infringement.
On this appeal, Mr. Hoffer argues that the district court’s claim construction was incorrect in several ways. Refusal to review the claim construction essentially erases this effort, by the parties and the district court, to establish the scope of the patent. Our refusal to reach the major portion of the district court’s claim construction does not say whether we deem it correct or incorrect. The Court in Cardinal Chemical criticized the Federal Circuit’s earlier practice of refusing to review the district court’s decision on the issue of validity. The Court pointed out that such inaction leaves unresolved, or clouded, important rights affecting the patentee, the alleged infringer, and the public:
Indeed, as Morton’s current predicament illustrates, see supra, at 1971, the Federal Circuit’s practice injures not only the alleged infringer and the public; it also may unfairly deprive the patentee itself of the appellate review that is a component of the one full and fair opportunity to have the issue adjudicated correctly.
508 U.S. at 101, 113 S.Ct. 1967.
This court neither vacates nor reviews the rest of the construction of Mr. Hoffer’s claims. Should there be error by the district court it now rests unreviewed; yet no one can confidently rely on a claim construction which this court does not reach. Neither the patentee nor the public is served by such uncertainty, as the Supreme Court recognized:
The Federal Circuit’s practice denies the patentee such appellate review, prolongs the life of invalid patents, encourages endless litigation (or at least uncertainty) over the validity of outstanding patents, and thereby vitiates the rule announced in Blonder-Tongue.
Id. at 102, 113 S.Ct. 1967 (citing Blonder-Tongue Labs., Inc. v. Univ. of Ill. Found., 402 U.S. 313, 91 S.Ct. 1434, 28 L.Ed.2d 788 (1971)).
It is not a tenable excuse that the technology is complicated and appellate review difficult; indeed, these are reasons for resolving the disputed aspects, not reserving them for future redetermination. The Court in Cardinal Chemical made clear that when the district court has decided issues that may be relevant to the future of the patent, and those issues are appealed, our obligation is to review the district court’s decision. This claim construction has been tried and has been appealed. It is our responsibility to decide the appeal. No sound reason supports the court’s departure from this obligation in this case, and the logic of Cardinal .Chemical prohibits it.