{"id":1091,"date":"2016-07-28T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2016-08-02T08:01:16","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T12:01:16","slug":"patent-drafters-leaving-coining-to-the-mint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1091","title":{"rendered":"Patent Drafters: Leaving Coining to the Mint"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Advanced Ground Information Systems, Inc. v. Life360, Inc.<\/em>, [2015-1732] (July 28, 2016) the Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment of invalidity of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,031,728 and 7,672,681\u00a0for indefiniteness.<\/p>\n

At issue was the term “symbol generator” in the claims in a cellular communication system. \u00a0The Federal Circuit agreed that “symbol generator”\u00a0invoked 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 112,\u00a0\u00b6 6, but were indefinite under 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 112, \u00b6 2.<\/p>\n

The Federal Circuit said that the failure to use the word “means” creates a\u00a0rebuttable presumption that \u00a7112, \u00b6 6 does not apply. \u00a0Whether \u00a7112, \u00b6 6, applies depends upon whether the words of\u00a0the claim are understood by persons of ordinary skill in\u00a0the art to have a sufficiently definite meaning as the\u00a0name for structure. The Federal Circuit said that the term \u201csymbol generator\u201d invokes \u00a7112, \u00b6 6 because it fails to describe a sufficient structure
\nand otherwise recites abstract elements \u201cfor\u201d causing\u00a0actions, or elements \u201cthat\u00a0can\u201d perform functions.<\/p>\n

The Federal Circuit noted that the patentee’s expert testified that\u00a0the term \u201csymbol generator\u201d is\u00a0a term coined for the purposes of the patents-in-suit, and that it was not used in \u201ccommon parlance or by\u00a0persons of skill in the pertinent art to designate structure.\u201d \u00a0While the expert testified that “symbol” and “generator” are well known terms,\u00a0the Federal Circuit found that the combination of the terms as\u00a0used in the context of the relevant claim language suggests\u00a0that it is simply an abstraction that describes the
\nfunction being performed (i.e., the generation of symbols). \u00a0Finally, the Federal Circuit found that\u00a0the claim term \u201csymbol generator,\u201d by itself,
\ndoes not identify a structure by its function.<\/p>\n

Having found that\u00a0\u00a7112, \u00b6 6, applies, the specification must disclose the corresponding structure or the claim in indefinte. \u00a0However, the Federal Circuit agreed with the district court that the the specifications of the patents-in-suit did not disclose\u00a0an operative algorithm for the claim elements reciting
\n\u201csymbol generator.\u201d The function of generating\u00a0symbols must be performed by some component of the\u00a0patents-in-suit; however, the Federal Circuit said that the patents-in-suit do not describe\u00a0this component.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Advanced Ground Information Systems, Inc. v. Life360, Inc., [2015-1732] (July 28, 2016) the Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment of invalidity of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,031,728 and 7,672,681\u00a0for indefiniteness. At issue was the term “symbol generator” in the claims in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indefiniteness"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1092,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}