Narrow Claim Construction Goes Down The Drain

Reversing a summary judgment of non-infringement based on a claim construction that excluded a disclosed embodiment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, finding no disclaimer or estoppel during prosecution, vacated the district court claim construction and remanded the case. Oatey Co. v. IPS Corp., Case No. 07-1214 (Fed. Cir., Jan. 30, 2008) (Newman, J.).

The patented invention concerns washing machine outlet boxes to collect hoses for the input and output water flow of washing machines. Oatey's patent is directed to an outlet box easily installed in a wall during building construction that accommodates two output drain ports and that has a "tailpiece" to collect the effluent from these ports and release it into a single drain pipe. Prior outlet boxes required that the installer perform several welds to join separate drain pipes from the drain ports into a single pipe below the outlet