Here is an update on recent en banc activity at the Federal Circuit in patent cases. The court received a new response to a petition raising questions related to claim construction and the doctrine of equivalents, and the court denied two petitions raising questions related to claim construction, eligible subject matter, and deference to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Here are the details.
New Response
In Olaf Sööt Design, LLC v. Daktronics, Inc., Daktronics filed its response to Olaf Sööt Design’s (“OSD”) petition for en banc review. In its petition, OSD argued that (1) Daktronics had waived any “O2 Micro challenge to the district court’s claim construction by failing to challenge the construction at the district court or on appeal,” and (2) the panel’s decision “resurrected vitiation as a legal ‘exception’ to the doctrine of equivalents.”
In response, Daktronics argues that (1) it had not waived its claim construction as it had fully brief the construction on multiple occasions, and (2) the panel properly found that Daktronics’ product had “no equivalent function and thus [could not] as a matter of law infringe under the DOE.”
Denials
The Federal Circuit denied petitions in the following two cases:
- GREE, Inc. v. Supercell Oy (eligible subject matter and deference to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board)
- KEYnetik, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. (claim construction)