Court Opinion

ID: 9492896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:52:54.123746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:32.648134
License: Public Domain

BRYSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I respectfully dissent from the portions of this court’s judgment upholding the district court’s summary judgment of no literal infringement and overturning the jury’s verdict of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents. I concur with the court’s disposition of the other issues in the case.
This court’s rulings on both infringement issues are based mainly on the court’s interpretation of the phrase “substantially inward of the peripheral edge [of the flexible disc]” in claim 1 of the ’382 patent. According to the court, the word “substantially” must be interpreted to mean “very much” or “far,” so that the quoted phrase means “very much inward, or far inward of the peripheral edge of the flexible disc.” The word “substantially,” however, has another meaning: it can, and often does, mean “largely,” “essentially, or “in the main.” See Webster’s New 20th Century Dictionary 1817 (1988); Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language 1454 (1962); see also Black’s Law Dictionary 1428 (6th ed.1990) (“essentially, without material qualification, in the main”); Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 1176 (1983) (“largely but not wholly that which is specified”); 1176 (1983) (“largely but not wholly that which is specified”); York Products Inc. v. Central Tractor Farm & Family Center, 99 F.3d 1568, 1573, 40 USPQ2d 1619, 1622 (Fed.Cir.1996). Under that interpretation of the term “substantially,” the phrase “substantially inward of the peripheral edge of the flexible disc” would mean “mostly or mainly inward of the peripheral edge of the flexible disc.”
Because the term “substantially” can have either meaning, we must look elsewhere to determine which meaning should be adopted in this instance. When we do, we find that the claim language, the written description, and the prosecution history all point the same way: the term “substantially” should be interpreted, as Zodiac proposes, to mean “largely,” “mostly,” or “in the main,” rather than “far.”
1. The claim. The stop would not serve the function that the patent envisages if it were positioned far inward of the edge of the flexible disc. The stop needs to be near the edge of the disc in order to perform the claimed function of “preventing upward flexing of the peripheral edge beyond a predetermined amount.” If the stop is located far inward of the periphery of the disc, the edge of the disk will flex upward without restriction, creating many of the very problems that the patent was intended to overcome. Therefore, the language of the claim supports Zodiac’s interpretation of the term “substantially.”
2. The written description. The written description explains that the “retainer,” which forms the stop, “is located a short distance above and adjacent the edge of the disc,” and the stop “prevents the disc ... from flexing upwardly relative to the foot by more that a predetermined amount.” Col. 3,11. 37-39. Thus, the patent makes clear that the stop is not located far inward of the peripheral edge of the disc, but is “adjacent” to the edge of the disc. For that reason, the written description is consistent with Zodiac’s interpretation of the pertinent claim language.
3. The prosecution history. As originally drafted, claim 1 of the application contained language that read: “a stop is located forwardly of the body, a short distance above, and inwardly of, the periphery of the flexible disc.” The examiner rejected that claim, in part on the ground that it was anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 4,023,227 to Chauvier. The examiner took the position that a flange that protruded slightly from the body of the cleaner in Chauvier was a “stop.” The applicant rewrote the claim, including the following as limitation (d): “a stop located forward and above the body and inward of the periphery of the flexible disc.” The applicant argued that the new claim was not anticipated by the Chauvier patent, as the *1419flange recited in Chauvier “does not act to prevent the disc from flexing a predetermined amount.... [It] cannot prevent the periphery of sealing flange 34 [ie., the flexible disc] from upward flexing.” By contrast, the applicant continued, the stop recited in limitation (d) of the new claim “is suspended above and not connected to [the flexible disc] and thus prevents the periphery of [the flexible disc] from flexing upward more than a predetermined amount.”
The examiner persisted in his rejection on several grounds, including that the claim as drafted was anticipated by Chau-vier, that “the utility of said stop has not been developed in the claims,” and that “[njothing in the claims defines a stop-flange periphery relationship as argued by applicant.” After a telephone interview, the applicant amended the language of limitation (d) by including the functional language “for preventing upward flexing of the peripheral edge beyond a predetermined amount,” and by making the location of the stop more specific by reciting that it was “located forward of the body and above and substantially inward of the peripheral edge.” The applicant explained that “the claims now define a stop/disk periphery relationship not disclosed in Chauvier.” In that amended form, the claim was allowed.
Both the examiner’s rejection in light of Chauvier and the amendment made by the applicant support Zodiac’s interpretation of the pertinent claim language. If the term “substantially inward” is interpreted to mean “far inward,” the claim language necessarily reads on the flange recited in Chauvier, since that flange is located far inward of the peripheral edge of Chauvier’s flexible disc. Moreover, the function recited in the functional clause of the amended limitation was performed by the structure recited in the rest of the limitation. That is, the stop was located “substantially inward of the peripheral edge” of the flexible disc in order to prevent the upward flexing of the peripheral edge of the disc. But that congruence between structure and function obtains only if the word “substantially” is understood in this context to mean “mostly” rather than “far,” because a stop located far inward of the peripheral edge would not prevent the upward flexing of the peripheral edge of the disc. Thus, Zodiac’s interpretation of the claim is entirely consistent with, and indeed compelled by, the applicant’s position before the Patent and Trademark Office. I would therefore construe claim 1 of the ’382 patent to require that the stop be located mainly inward of the peripheral edge of the flexible disc, but not far inward of the edge of the disc.
That claim construction issue affects the disposition of both literal infringement and infringement under the doctrine of equivalents in this case. If Zodiac’s claim construction were accepted, it would require that the summary judgment of no literal infringement be reversed with respect to both accused devices. And under Zodiac’s claim construction the weight arms of the accused devices clearly could be found to be equivalent to the stops claimed in the ’382 patent. I would therefore uphold the jury’s verdict of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents and reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment of no literal infringement.