Claims are Definite When Understood by one of Ordinary Skill

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the district court summary judgment that the claim terms of a pair of patents was indefinite and invalid under 35 U.S.C. §112, noting that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand the claim language from the patent. Howmedica Osteonics Corp. v. Tranquil Prospects, Ltd., Case No. 04-1302 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 28, 2005) (Rader, J.). The Federal Circuit further held that the district court erred in holding certain claims required the claimed prosthetic to be pre-coated with bone cement.

Tranquil is the owner of two patents relating to implantation of an intramedullary prostheses. Howmedica sought declaratory judgment that the claims of Tranquil’s patents were invalid, unenforceable and not infringed. The claims of the two patents require that the "transverse sectional dimensions" of the coated prosthesis constitute certain percentages of the medullary canal defined by the cortical bone. The district court, unable to construe