Addressing the preservation of claim construction disputes for
appeal and issues of divided infringement, the US Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court, explaining
that O2 Micro only requires the district court to resolve
claim construction issues that were actually and affirmatively
raised before or during trial, and that, for purposes of a divided
infringement analysis, a negative claim limitation is not an
affirmative step that must be performed by the same party.
LifeNet Health v. LifeCell Corp., Case No. 15-1549 (Fed.
Cir., Sept. 16, 2016) (Prost, CJ).
LifeNet’s patent relates to plasticized soft tissue grafts
for transplantation. Prior art tissue grafts were preserved by
freeze drying, which presented several technical and medical
disadvantages. LifeNet developed an improved preservation method,
where the tissue’s water is replaced with plasticizers that
mimic the hydrating capability of water while eliminating the need
for a
