Summary
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama construes disputed terms in U.S. Patent No. 7,198,253 concerning wire rope connectors and tensioning devices. The Court adopts plain-and-ordinary-meaning constructions for several terms and construes the disputed swivel, cylindrical member, and rotatable attachment terms to encompass both separate and unitary embodiments. The Court defers consideration of Ram Tail’s indefiniteness defense until a later stage.
Holdings
- The term has its plain and ordinary meaning and is not limited to threading at the two furthest portions of the cylindrical member or to the two-piece embodiment.
- The term means "a swivel that can be separate from or unitary with the threaded cylindrical member, with separate or common threading, respectively."
- The term has its plain and ordinary meaning and does not require substitution of the proposed "separate component" or "not dependent" language.
- The terms mean "the swivel/cylindrical member is capable of being fully rotatable within the mounting plate when the mounting plate is attached to a support surface." The claims do not require the device to be actually attached to a particular support structure for the claimed apparatus to satisfy the limitation.
- The court did not decide indefiniteness at the claim-construction stage and construed the term according to its plain and ordinary meaning.
Questions Presented
- Whether the term "a cylindrical member including a first threaded end and a second threaded end" should be limited to a hollow cylindrical tube with threading at its two furthest portions.
- Whether "a threaded swivel engaging the cylindrical member" covers both separate and unitary swivel-and-cylindrical-member embodiments.
- Whether "a tensioning assembly being an independent component from the attaching means and the rigid body" requires a particular separate-component limitation.
- Whether the terms concerning a tensioning assembly being fully rotatably attached to a support surface and a mounting plate receiving the swivel and cylindrical member require actual attachment to a support structure.
- Whether the term "railing system including at least one wire attachment and tensioning device" was indefinite.
Disposition
other
Cases Cited (22)
- Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 52 F.3d 967, 976, 979-80 (Fed. Cir. 1995), aff'd, 517 U.S. 370, 372, 116 S. Ct. 1384, 134 L. Ed. 2d 577 (1996)(followed)
- Elekta Instrument S.A. v. O.U.R. Scientific International, Inc., 214 F.3d 1302, 1306 (Fed. Cir. 2000)(followed)
- Interactive Gift Express, Inc. v. Compuserve, Inc., 256 F.3d 1323, 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2001)(followed)
- Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313-14, 1317-19 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc)(followed)
- Texas Digital Systems, Inc. v. Telegenix, Inc., 308 F.3d 1193, 1202 (Fed. Cir. 2002)(followed)
- Insituform Technologies, Inc. v. CAT Contracting, Inc., 99 F.3d 1098, 1105 (Fed. Cir. 1996)(followed)
- Eastman Kodak Co. v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 114 F.3d 1547, 1552 (Fed. Cir. 1997)(followed)
- Northern Telecom Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics, 215 F.3d 1281, 1287 (Fed. Cir. 2000)(followed)
- Ekchian v. Home Depot, Inc., 104 F.3d 1299, 1303 (Fed. Cir. 1997)(followed)
- Intervet America, Inc. v. Kee-Vet Laboratories, Inc., 887 F.2d 1050, 1053 (Fed. Cir. 1989)(followed)
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Cited In (0)
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Court Document
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