Claim Construction

Articles

Claim Construction

K-fee v. Nespresso: How an Ambiguous Foreign File Wrapper Failed to Shrink a Claim

The Federal Circuit reversed a claim construction that read 'barcode' to exclude bit codes, holding that K-fee's statements to the European Patent Office were too ambiguous to disclaim the term's full ordinary meaning.

March 14, 2026

Claim Construction

When Claim Construction Is a Fact: Teva Pharmaceuticals v. Sandoz and the Clear-Error Standard

The Supreme Court held that subsidiary factual findings underlying a claim construction must be reviewed for clear error, narrowing decades of de novo appellate review.

September 15, 2025

Claim Construction

The Specification Comes First: Phillips v. AWH Corp. and the Hierarchy of Claim-Construction Evidence

Sitting en banc, the Federal Circuit demoted the dictionary and elevated the patent's own specification as the single best guide to claim meaning.

May 19, 2025

Claim Construction

Who Reads the Claim: Markman v. Westview Instruments and the Birth of the Markman Hearing

The Supreme Court held that construing a patent claim is a question for the judge, not the jury—reshaping how every patent case is tried.

February 10, 2025