Though litigants routinely enter into stipulated protective orders in the course of discovery that may involve sensitive company information (or even trade secrets), a recent ruling is.
Over the past 20 years, the Federal Circuit’s opinion in SuperGuide Corp. v. DirectTV Enters., Inc., 358 F.3d 870 (Fed. Cir. 2004), which defined the plain and ordinary meaning of the.
The Federal Circuit's 2004 decision in Superguide v. DirecTV can be influential in determining the fate of a patent's validity based upon a simple test: does your claim recite "OR" or does your claim recite "AND" when listing a series of elements?
Supremely Confusing on That Complex Word “A”; Is It Only One or Is It One or More? Friday, June 11, 2021
A patent drafter’s selection of even the smallest of words, like “a,” may have a significant impact on how a claim is construed. Does “a” mean “at least one”? Or does it mean just “one”? As the case law we explore in this article indicates, it can be both! And as will be seen, recently a split Supreme Court muddled through over 40 pages to try to decide what “a” meant in a particular statute.
“A” Means “One or More”
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