Scimed Life Sys. v. Advanced Cardiovascular Sys.

• Decision Date: 14 March 2001
• Citation: 58 USPQ2d 1059,242 F.3d 1337
• Parties: (Fed. Cir. 2001) SCIMED LIFE SYSTEMS, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ADVANCED CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant-Appellee. 99-1499
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

Page 1337

242 F.3d 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2001)

SCIMED LIFE SYSTEMS, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ADVANCED CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

99-1499

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT

Decided March 14, 2001

William K. West, Jr., Howrey Simon Arnold & White, LLP, of Washington, DC, argued for plaintiff-appellant. With him on the brief were James F. Davis, Robert F. Ruyak, Jerrold J. Ganzfried, and Celine T. Callahan. Of counsel on the brief was Peter J. Gafner, SciMed Life Systems, Inc., of Maple Grove, Minnesota. Of counsel were Philip S. Johnson, Gary H. Levin, Lynn A. Malinoski, and Michael J. Bonella, Woodcock Washburn Kurtz Mackiewicz & Norris, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Edward A. Mas II, McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd., of Chicago, Illinois, argued for defendant-appellee. With him on the brief were Timothy J. Malloy, Steven J. Hampton, Kirk A. Vander Leest, Richard T. McCaulley, Jr., and Robert A. Surrette. Of counsel was Gregory J. Vogler, and David D. Headrick.

Before BRYSON, Circuit Judge, PLAGER, Senior Circuit Judge, and DYK, Circuit Judge.

BRYSON, J.

SciMed Life Systems, Inc., (SciMed) owns three U.S. patents drawn to features of balloon dilatation catheters: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,156,594 (the '594 patent), 5,217,482 (the '482 patent), and 5,395,334 (the '334 patent). SciMed filed suit against Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., (ACS) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California charging ACS with infringement of each of the three patents. On ACS's motion for summary judgment, the district court ruled that ACS had not infringed the disputed patents. The district court's ruling was based on the court's conclusion that the asserted claims were limited to a structure not found in ACS's accused devices and on the court's conclusion that ACS's devices did not infringe SciMed's patents under the doctrine of equivalents. We agree with the district court's claim construction and its ruling on the equivalents issue. We therefore affirm the summary judgment of non-infringement.

I

Balloon dilatation catheters are used in coronary angioplasty procedures to remove restrictions in coronary arteries. The SciMed patents describe catheters having three sections: a first shaft section, a second shaft section, and a transition section between the two. The first shaft section is long, relatively stiff, and generally tubular. The second shaft section is relatively flexible and contains a balloon at the end, which is inflated to relieve the arterial restriction. The transition section connects the first and second shaft sections and provides a gradual transition in stiffness between the two shaft sections.

The catheters claimed in the SciMed patents contain two passageways, or lumens. The first lumen, the guide-wire lumen, is used to guide the catheter through a patient's arteries to the site of the arterial restriction. A guide wire is first inserted into one of the patient's arteries. The guide-wire lumen is then threaded over the guide wire to guide the catheter through the patient's arteries until the catheter reaches the coronary restriction. In the invention recited in the SciMed patents, the guide wire does not enter the catheter at the proximal end of the catheter, i.e., the end closer to the surgeon, but at a point nearer to the distal end of the catheter, i.e., the leading end of the catheter as it is inserted into the patient. The guide-wire lumen is present only in the distal portion of the catheter and does not extend the entire length of the catheter. The second lumen is the inflation lumen. It extends through all sections of the catheter and terminates in a connection with the balloon. The balloon is inflated by forcing fluid into the inflation lumen. The balloon then compresses the material restricting the artery, thereby relieving the restriction.

The parties agree that only two arrangements of the two lumens are known and practiced in the art. In the dual (or adjacent) lumen configuration, the two lumens are positioned side-by-side within the catheter. In the coaxial lumen configuration, the guide wire lumen runs inside the inflation lumen; in that configuration the inflation lumen, viewed in cross-section, is annular in shape. The parties also agree that the accused ACS devices employ only the dual lumen configuration and that the preferred embodiment described in the SciMed patents employs the coaxial lumen configuration.

Based on language in the common written description portion of the three SciMed patents, the district court construed the asserted claims of the patents to be limited to catheters with coaxial lumens, and not to read on catheters with a dual lumen configuration. The court noted that "the language contained in SciMed's specifications expressly limits all embodiments of the claimed invention to a coaxial structure." The court focused in particular on language from the common specification describing the coaxial lumen structure as the "basic sleeve structure for all embodiments of the present invention contemplated and disclosed herein." That language, the court concluded, "leaves no doubt that a person skilled in the art would conclude that the inventor envisioned only one design for the catheters taught in SciMed's patents--an intermediate sleeve section containing two . . . lumens arranged coaxially."

In light of the district court's construction of the asserted claims, SciMed conceded that ACS's accused catheters did not literally infringe any of the asserted claims. In addition, the court held on summary judgment that the two lumen arrangements were sufficiently different that no reasonable jury could find the accused catheters to infringe the SciMed patents under the doctrine of equivalents. SciMed appeals the claim construction and the summary judgment based on that construction.

II

The principal question in this case is a narrow one: whether the common specification of the three patents limits the scope of the asserted claims to catheters with coaxial lumens. There is nothing pertinent to this issue in the prosecution history of the three patents; the case turns entirely on an interpretation of the asserted claims in light of the specification, which is essentially identical for each of the three patents. Like the district court, we interpret the specification to disclaim the dual lumen configuration and to limit the scope of the asserted claims to catheters with coaxial lumen structures having annular inflation lumens. We therefore construe the asserted claims to read only on catheters with coaxial lumens, and not on catheters with dual or side-by-side lumens.

Claim 19 of the '594 patent is representative of the asserted claims of the three patents in suit. It claims the following:

In an elongate dilatation catheter of the type that can be slidably moved along a guide wire that can extend past a distal end of the catheter, wherein the guide wire is received in a guide wire lumen of the catheter, the guide wire extending from a distal guide wire lumen opening to a proximal guide wire lumen opening disposed in a portion of the catheter that is spaced distally from a proximal end of the catheter, the dilatation catheter including an inflatable balloon and an inflation lumen extending through the catheter separate from the guide wire lumen, an improvement comprising:

a first proximal shaft section of the catheter defined by a relatively rigid metallic tube;

a second shaft section disposed distally of the first shaft section, the second shaft section being relatively more flexible than the first shaft section; and

a transition section disposed between the first shaft section and the second shaft section, the transition section including a transition member comprising a metallic element of gradually diminished dimension, the transition member extending adjacent to the proximal guide wire lumen opening, and the transition member having gradually decreasing rigidity in the distal direction to provide a relatively smooth transition between the first shaft section and the second shaft section.

SciMed argues at length that in construing the claims based on the written description, the district court has committed one of the cardinal sins of patent law--reading a limitation from the written description into the claims. See Comark Communications, Inc. v. Harris Corp., 156 F.3d 1182, 1186, 48 USPQ2d 1001, 1005 (Fed. Cir. 1998). But that is not an accurate characterization of what the district court did. Instead, the district court properly followed the invocation that "claims must be read in view of the specification, of which they are a part." Markman v. Westview Instruments, 52 F.3d 967, 979-980 34 USPQ2d 1321, 1329 (Fed. Cir. 1995), aff'd, 517 U.S. 370, 134 L. Ed. 2d 577, 116 S. Ct. 1384 (1996); see also United States v. Adams, 383 U.S. 39, 49, 148 USPQ 479, 482, 15 L. Ed. 2d 572, 86 S. Ct. 708 (1966) ("Claims are to be construed in light of the specifications and both are to be read with a view to ascertaining the invention."); Slimfold Mfg. Co. v. Kinkead Indus., Inc., 810 F.2d 1113, 1116, 1 USPQ2d 1563, 1566 (Fed. Cir. 1987) ("Claims are not interpreted in a vacuum, but are part of and are read in light of the specification.").

As this court has recently explained, "one purpose for examining the specification is to determine if the patentee has limited the scope of the claims." Watts v. XL Sys., Inc., 232 F.3d 877, 882, 56 USPQ2d 1836, 1839 (Fed. Cir. 2000). Where 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. Thus, in the Watts case, the claim in dispute recited pipe joints that could be "sealingly connected." The court...