In Continental Circuits LLC v. Intel Corporation, No. 2018-1076 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 8, 2019), a Federal Circuit panel confirmed that disavowal of claim scope, whether in the patent’s specification or prosecution history, must be “clear and unmistakable.”
The patents at issue in Continental Circuits were directed to “a multilayer electrical device . . . having a tooth structure” and “methods for making the same,” where the “teeth improve[d] the adhesion of the layers to one another.” Continental Circuits, slip op. at 2-3. The specification disclosed that “[o]ne technique for forming the teeth is . . . the … Continue Reading