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Nautilus V. Biosig Instruments

Decent Essays

I. Clear Error Standard on Appeal For Subsidiary Factual Matters
A. Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 135 S. Ct. 831 (2015) The Supreme Court held that when reviewing a district court's resolution of subsidiary factual matters during patent claim construction, the Federal Circuit must apply the clear error standard, not a de novo standard of review.

1. Background The owner of a patent covering a manufacturing method for a multiple sclerosis drug brought an action against marketers of a generic version of the drug, alleging infringement. The marketers filed counterclaims seeking declaratory judgment of non-infringement, unenforceability, and invalidity.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New construed the …show more content…

On the original appeal in this case, the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the district court's finding of indefiniteness under the premise that a claim is indefinite only when it is not amenable to construction or insolubly ambiguous. The Supreme Court in Nautilus v. Biosig Instruments Inc. 134 S.Ct. 2120, 2124 (2014) in its decision articulated the standard "A patent is invalid for indefiniteness if its claims, read in light of the specification delineating the patent, and the prosecution history, fail to inform, with reasonable certainty those skilled in the art about the scope of the invention."

In light of the new standard set forth by the Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit addressed only the issue of indefiniteness on remand. The question before the court was whether the district court erred in holding that the “spaced relationship” as recited in claim 1, and referring to the spacing between the common and live electrodes, was not distinctly pointed out and particularly claimed in the patent in violation of 35 U.S.C. §

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