Patent Case Watch

Patent opinions from the Eastern District of Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Weekly Digest

Claim Construction

Claim construction is the process of deciding what the words of a patent claim mean as a matter of law. Because infringement and validity are both measured against the construed claim, the meaning assigned to a disputed term frequently decides the case before any evidence reaches a jury. District courts ordinarily construe terms after briefing and a hearing, and the Federal Circuit reviews the result de novo except for subsidiary findings about extrinsic evidence, which it reviews for clear error. The opinions collected here include Markman orders construing disputed terms, rulings on whether a term is governed by the means-plus-function provision, and appellate decisions revisiting a construction. Many run to dozens of terms and several hundred pages.

2,229 opinions and orders, showing 1,801–2,000.