Claim Terms Held Are Not Means-Plus-Function Limitations When Claim Language, In View Of Written Description, Recites Sufficiently Definite Structure

Article by Hin M. Au*

This article previously appeared in Last Month at the Federal Circuit Newsletter, July 2011

Judges:  Lourie (author), Prost, Moore

[Appealed from D. Del., Judge Robreno]

In Inventio AG v. ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas Corp., No. 10-1525 (Fed. Cir. June 15, 2011), the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the district court's grant of SJ of invalidity based on a determination that certain claim limitations were means-plus-function limitations subject to 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 and were indefinite for lack of disclosure of corresponding structure. 

Inventio AG ("Inventio") sued ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas Corporation, ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corporation, and ThyssenKrupp Elevator Manufacturing Incorporated (collectively "ThyssenKrupp") for infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,892,861 ("the '861 patent") and 6,935,465 ("the '465 patent").  The patents are directed to a modernized elevator system that allows a passenger at the boarding