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Federal Circuit IP Blog

Relative Terms Survive Indefiniteness Challenge

April 22, 2022

Authored and Edited by Caitlin E. Fowler; Elizabeth D. Ferrill

In Niazi Licensing Corp. v. St. Jude Med. S.C., Inc., No. 21-1864 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 11, 2022), the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s decision holding that the terms “resilient” and “pliable” were indefinite. The Federal Circuit found that these terms were broad, but that a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand their scope with reasonable certainty in light of the intrinsic evidence. For a more detailed analysis of this case, please see Finnegan’s Prosecution First blog.

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United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), claim construction, indefiniteness (35 USC § 112)

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