Claim Construction Looks At More Than Prosecution History

Frans Nooren Afdichtingssytemen BV v. Stopaq Amcorr Inc.

Addressing a lower court's ruling of non-infringement after claim construction, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the non-infringement decision, finding that the lower court construed relevant terms too narrowly.  Frans Nooren Afdichtingssytemen BV v. Stopaq Amcorr Inc., Case No. 13-1200 (Fed. Cir., Feb. 21, 2014) (Taranto, J.).

Nooren owns a patent directed to a composition used for insulating and protecting substrates, such as manhole covers, from corrosion, water ingress and mechanical stresses.  The sole independent claim requires a shaped article including a substrate having applied thereon a coating composition and "a filler comprising a plurality of fractions each comprising different size particles, and wherein said different fractions have different particle size distributions."  A Dutch company manufactures products that prevent corrosion and water leaks.  The