Prior Narrow Definition Does Not (Necessarily) Limit Claim Scope in Family Member

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Finjan LLC v. ESET LLC, — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. 2022)

Finjan’s patents claim a technique for checking downloadable information for safety problems.  Again in 1996 when Finjan submitted its original provisional software, the focus was on applets or other little downloadable courses.  But downloadables now are much bulkier.  Right here, the claims need a quantity of functions on “a downloadable” and the events have debated throughout the litigation how to construe that time period.

The district court’s method was a bit convoluted.

  • Building: The district court docket initially narrowly construed the phrase as confined only to “modest downloadables.” While the asserted patents do not seems to require smallness, the patents do integrate-by-reference a relatives member that significantly defines downloadable as “applets” and as “small executable or interpretable application program[s] which [are] downloaded.”
  • Invalidation: Later, the district court docket reviewed that design and concluded that the phrase “small” is a expression of diploma without having any restricting theory and therefor is invalid as indefinite.

On appeal, the Federal Circuit has reversed on the adhering to stage of law:

The use of a restrictive phrase in an previously application does not reinstate that time period in a later patent that purposely deletes the term, even if the before patent is integrated by reference.

Slip Op.  The courtroom additional described that patents inside of a relatives can use two distinctive definitions of the exact time period.  “[T]hese two definitions can exist in harmony inside the patent family members.”  The court famous that the previously software with the “small” limitation was centered on downloading little executables while the patents at difficulty in this circumstance declare an invention with a improved-concentrate that is “not constrained to ‘small’ executable[s].” Below, the courtroom famous that the patentee had also included by reference an additional prior patent that did not involve the small restrict.  For the appellate court docket, all this indicates that, for the asserted patents the downloadables are not needed to be little.

I have bundled an impression of the patent loved ones tree from the patentee’s transient.  You can see that there are several branches.  I think that it is these branches (instead than a straight-chain of continuations) that helped the court docket arrive at its decision that the household-member definitions had been not binding.  The court noted some about of change in the disclosures as perfectly.

Considering the fact that the “small” definition was removed, that also mooted the concern of whether or not “small” is indefinite.

 

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