In the past two months, the Supreme Court handed down a significant patent-law decision establishing the standard of appellate review for claim-construction decisions, and resolved a circuit split by holding that a jury, not the court, should decide whether modifications to a trademark change the commercial impression of the mark. We also address appellate decisions about the evolving doctrine of patent exhaustion, and about copyright damages in the lawsuit between Korean War Memorial sculptor Frank Gaylord and the U.S. Postal Service.
Patent: Claim Construction
Claim construction—the definition of terms in a patent claim—can be the most important event in a patent case, because the scope of the invention guides infringement, invalidity and damages issues. Such an important substantive issue necessarily raises important procedural questions: Who decides claim construction, and how is that decision reviewed on appeal?
