Federal Circuit Refuses to Consider Claim Construction Issue Sua Sponte and Affirms Finding of Non-Infringement

In Egenera, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., 2023-1428 (Fed. Cir. July 7, 2025), the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court decision finding that Cisco did not infringe Egenera’s U.S. Patent No. 7,231,430 (the 430 patent).

The ’430 patent claims a “virtualized processing area network” that can be virtually managed through configuration commands rather than through manual configurations. The district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement for Cisco as to two of the claims. Following a trial in which a jury found non-infringement for the remaining claims, Egenera moved for JMOL and a new trial. The district court denied these motions.

On appeal, the Federal Circuit held that the district court properly considered all the evidence and that it supports the finding of non-infringement. The Court also noted that Egenera’s argument, although framed as a factual dispute, actually turned on the construction of the term “emulate.” Because the claim construction issue was not timely identified, briefed, or argued on appeal, the Court refused to consider this argument. Determining the district court properly denied Egenera’s JMOL motion and motion for a new trial, the Court affirmed.