372
Opinion of the Court
Frank H. Griffin III argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Peter A. Vogt and Polly M. Shaffer.*
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question here is whether the interpretation of a so-called patent claim, the portion of the patent document that defines the scope of the patentee's rights, is a matter of law reserved entirely for the court, or subject to a Seventh Amendment guarantee that a jury will determine the meaning of any disputed term of art about which expert testimony is offered. We hold that the construction of a patent, including terms of art within its claim, is exclusively within the province of the court.
*Jeffrey Robert White, Pamela A. Liapakis, and Joseph W. Cotchett filed a brief for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Intellectual Property Law Association by Don W. Martens, Charles L. Gholz, R. Carl Moy, Roger W. Parkhurst, Joseph R. Re, Paul A. Stewart, and Harold C. Wegner; for the Federal Circuit Bar Association by David H. T. Kane and Rudolph P. Hofmann; for the Dallas-Fort Worth Intellectual Property Law Association; for Honeywell, Inc., by Richard G. Taranto and David L. Shapiro; for Intellectual Property Owners by Rex E. Lee, Carter G. Phillips, Mark E. Haddad, and Constantine L. Trela; for Matsushita Electric Corp. of America et al. by Morton Amster and Joel E. Lutzker; for United States Surgical Corp. by John G. Kester, J. Alan Galbraith, William E. McDaniels, Arthur R. Miller, Thomas R. Bremer, and John C. Andres; for John T. Roberts, pro se; and for Douglas W. Wyatt by Mr. Wyatt, pro se, Paul M. Janicke, and John R. Kirk, Jr.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for Airtouch Communications, Inc., by Allan N. Littman and Robert P. Taylor; for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association by Charles W. Bradley, Stanley L. Amberg, Phillip D. Brady, and Andrew D. Koblenz; for the American Board of Trial Advocates by Robert G. Vial; for Exxon Corp. et al. by Donald B. Craven, Gerald Goldman, James P. Tuite, and James R. Lovelace; and for Litton Systems, Inc., by Laurence H. Tribe, Jonathan S. Massey, and Kenneth J. Chesebro.
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007