Vistan Corporation v. Fadei USA, Inc., No. 13-1216 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 3, 2013)

From the Opinion

The passage below is extracted verbatim from the opening of the document. It has not been editorially summarized — consult the full opinion for the court's complete reasoning.

I Appellant Vistan Corporation is the owner U.S. P a- tent No. 5,870,949 (“the ’949 patent” ), which is directed to an apparatus for pitting soft fruit, such as prunes and dates. Claims 5 and 12, the claims at issue in this case , recite a fruit-pitting apparatus in which fruit is conveyed in fruit holders toward pitting knives and then briefly stopped under the knives . The knives are then forced down through the fruit, ejecting the pits through the bottoms of the fruit holders.