ACCUSED INFRINGER WINS ITS CLAIM CONSTRUCTION THROUGH REEXAMINATION

| May 10, 2010

The claimed invention in Albecker v. Contour Products was a leisure chair.  2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44649 (N.D. Ill. May 3, 2010).  The key claim limitation in dispute was a “top cushion” – the patentee argued that the cushion could have either a unitary or a two-piece structure, whereas the accused infringer asserted that the cushion must be a two-piece structure.

Last week, Judge Ruben Castillo ruled in favor of the accused infringer, citing an earlier reexamination of the patent as showing that the examiner understood the “top cushion” to be limited to a two-piece structure.

The earlier reexamination was requested by the accused infringer in January 2009.  Reexamination was ordered in May, but the patentability of the claims was confirmed by the PTO in December.  In calculating the success rates of reexamination requests, one might have assumed that such confirmation was smashing success for the patentee.  Judge Castillo’s ruling last week showed the opposite – even by losing the reexamination, the accused infringer succeeded.

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