Pliant Corp. v. Msc Marketing & Technology, Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 04 C 3509.,04 C 3509. |
| Citation | 416 F.Supp.2d 632 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
| Parties | PLIANT CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. MSC MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY, INC. d/b/a/ Sigma Stretch Film and Atlantis Plastics, Inc., Defendants. |
Edward H. Rice, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, LLP, Chicago, IL, Curtis E. Woods, Dianne M. Smith-Misemer, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, LLP, Kansas City, MO, for Plaintiff.
Barry S. White, James K. Stronski, John Josef Molenda, Frommer, Lawrence & Haug, LLP, New York City, Dean A. Monco, Allen J. Hoover, Wood, Phillips, Katz, Clark & Mortimer, Chicago, IL, for MSC Marketing & Technology, Inc. d/b/a Sigma Stretch Film.
Michael P. Chu, David H. Bluestone, Samuel E. Shehadeh, Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione, Chicago, IL, for Atlantis Plastics, Inc.
On May 20, 2004, Plaintiff Pliant Corporation ("Pliant") filed suit against Defendants MSC Marketing & Technology ("Sigma") and Atlantis Plastics, Inc. ("Atlantis") alleging infringement of United States Patent No. 5,531,393 ("`393 patent"). The subject of the '393 patent is a plastic stretch film that is stretched and marked with an embossed surface to make the roll easier to unwind. The inventor was not the first to devise specially-wrapped rolls of plastic film. According to the patent, the problem with prior rolls was the propensity of the plastic film to weld together and rip upon unwinding. The stated benefits of the present invention include increased ease in unwinding the rolls of film and strengthened tear characteristics. The patent contains two independent and several dependent claims. The parties have asked me to construe the meaning of several disputed claim terms.
Claim construction is a matter of law for the court to decide. Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996). In order "[t]o ascertain the meaning of claims, [the court] consider[s] three sources: The claims, the specification, and the prosecution history." Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 52 F.3d 967, 979 (Fed.Cir.1995), aff'd 517 U.S. 370, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996). These three sources are the intrinsic evidence, public records available for all to consult when determining the meaning and scope of a patent claim. Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, Inc., 90 F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed. Cir.1996). When the intrinsic evidence unambiguously describes the scope of a patented invention, reliance on extrinsic evidence, such as expert testimony and treatises, is inappropriate. Id. at 1583.
Claim interpretation begins with the actual words of the claims. Bell Communs. Research v. Vitalink Communs. Corp., 55 F.3d 615, 619-20 (Fed.Cir.1995); see also Teleflex, Inc. v. Ficosa N. Am. Corp., 299 F.3d 1313, 1324 (Fed.Cir.2002). Generally, the words, phrases and terms in patent claims should receive their ordinary and accustomed meaning. Johnson Worldwide Assocs. v. Zebco Corp., 175 F.3d 985, 989 (Fed.Cir.1999). The strong presumption in favor of the ordinary meaning may be overcome only when the patentee "clearly set[s] forth a definition for a claim term in the specification." Anchor Wall Sys. v. Rockwood Retaining Walls, Inc., 340 F.3d 1298, 1306 (Fed.Cir. 2003) (citing Johnson Worldwide Assoc., 175 F.3d at 989-90). "[A] technical term used in a patent claim is interpreted as having the meaning a person of ordinary skill in the field of the invention would understand it to mean." Dow Chem. Co. v. Sumitomo Chem. Co., 257 F.3d 1364, 1372 (Fed.Cir.2001) (citation omitted).
Because dictionaries, and especially technical dictionaries, endeavor to collect the accepted meanings of terms used in various fields of science and technology, those resources have been properly recognized as among the many tools that can assist the court in determining the meaning of particular terminology to those of skill in the art of the invention.
Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1318 (Fed.Cir.2005) (citation omitted).
"[C]laims must be read in view of the specification, of which they are a part." Markman, 52 F.3d at 979 (citations omitted). The specification may reveal "whether the inventor has used any terms in a manner inconsistent with their ordinary meaning." Vitronics Corp., 90 F.3d at 1582 (). The specification also serves as an aid in determining "the meaning of the claim term as it is used ... in the context of the entirety of [the] invention." Interactive Gift Express, Inc. v. Compuserve Inc., 231 F.3d 859, 866 (Fed.Cir.2000) (quoting Comark Communs., Inc. v. Harris Corp., 156 F.3d 1182, 1187 (Fed.Cir.1998)).
The claims, however, are not limited to the embodiment shown in the specifications. Anchor Wall, 340 F.3d at 1307; Transmatic, Inc. v. Gulton Indus., 53 F.3d 1270, 1277 (Fed.Cir.1995). Limitations appearing only in the specifications cannot be read into a claim because "the claim, not the specification, measures the invention." Howes v. Zircon Corp., 992 F.Supp. 957, 961 (N.D.Ill.1998) (citing SRI Int'l v. Matsushita Elec. Corp., 775 F.2d 1107 (Fed. Cir.1985)). However, when the specification "makes clear that the invention does not include a particular feature, that feature is deemed to be outside the reach of the claims of the patent, even though the language of the claims, read without reference to the specification, might be considered broad enough to encompass the feature in question." SciMed Life Sys., Inc. v. Advanced Cardiovascular Sys., Inc., 242 F.3d 1337, 1341 (Fed.Cir.2001).
Each patent has a corresponding publicly-available record called the prosecution history, which details the proceedings before the Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"). The prosecution history may limit the interpretation of claim terms by revealing express representations made by the applicant regarding the scope of the claims or by excluding interpretations that were disclaimed during prosecution. Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1582-83 (citations omitted). However, "unless altering claim language to escape an examiner rejection, a patent applicant only limits claims during prosecution by clearly disavowing claim coverage." Kopykake Enters. v. Lucks Co., 264 F.3d 1377, 1382 (Fed.Cir.2001) (internal quotation and citation omitted). Any such disavowal "must be clear and unmistakable." Anchor Wall, 340 F.3d at 1307. Finally, extrinsic evidence such as expert testimony may be considered only where the language of the claims remains ambiguous after consideration of the claim language, specification and file history. Key Pharms. v. Hereon Labs. Corp., 161 F.3d 709, 716 (Fed.Cir.1998). "[E]xtrinsic evidence in general, and expert testimony in particular, may be used only to help the court come to the proper understanding of the claims; it may not be used to vary or contradict the claim language." Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1584.
The terms whose meanings are in dispute appear in independent Claims 1 and 9 and dependent claims 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The claims are stated below; the disputed terms are emphasized.1
1. A roll of stretched plastic film for wrapping a pallet load, said film having two opposite outermost side edges and an unstretched original length, said film being stretched along the length thereof between 50% and 300% of the original length, the two opposite outermost side edges being folded over along the lateral direction to the length for strengthening the outermost edges of the film, the stretched film then being rolled.
2. A roll of stretched plastic film as claimed in claim 1 wherein said plastic film has an impressed textured surface to> trap air so as to facilitate unwinding of said roll of stretched film.
3. A roll of stretched plastic film as claimed in claim 1 wherein said film presents a variable gauge thickness to trap air in said rolled film so as to facilitate the unwinding of said roll of stretched film.
6. A roll of stretched plastic film as claimed in claim 1, wherein said stretched film has increased strength characteristics due to stretching.
9. A roll of stretched plastic film for wrapping a pallet load, said film having two opposite outermost side edges and an unstretched original length, said film being stretched along the length thereof between 50% and 300% of the original length, the two opposite outermost side edges being thicker than the remainder of said stretched film for strengthening the outermost edges of the film, the stretched film then being rolled.
10. A roll of stretched plastic film as claimed in claim 9 wherein said plastic film has an impressed textured surface to trap air so as to facilitate unwinding of said roll of stretched film.
11. A roll of stretched plastic film as claimed in claim 10 wherein said stretched film presents a variable gauge thickness.
12. A roll of stretched plastic film as claimed in claim 9 defined by a single layer web stretched along the length thereof.
Pliant asks me to construe the "roll of stretched plastic film" as a roll of "previously stretched (i.e., mechanically elongated) plastic film." Defendants object to the use of the term "previously," arguing that the inventor disclaimed the term during the patent's prosecution. The prosecution history reveals that the inventor's proposed claims were rejected several times before approval. Until the final set of claims was proposed in 1995, the inventor consistently used the term "prestretched." The inventor used the term to convey the idea that the stretching occurred before the plastic was rolled. In October 1995, the patent examiner proposed a new claim to "correct[]...
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