The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday partly righted the patent protection apple cart that a lower court had upset in the closely watched Festo case.
In a unanimous decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court said the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was wrong in its 2000 ruling that when patent applicants amend their claims, they automatically surrender the protection of the doctrine of equivalents, an important tool against competitors who copy their innovations. Under the doctrine of equivalents, two devices that do the same work in basically the same way with the same result will be considered the same, regardless of differences in name or form.
