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ARTICLE · 10 MARCH 2026

Nearest Referent, Nearest Resolution: Federal Circuit Clarifies Encryption Claim Language

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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In Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC, No. 24-1541 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 13, 2026), the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's claim construction, vacated its final written decision...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Erik Puknys
Erik Puknys
Karlie I. Hinton
Karlie I. Hinton
Ryan McDonnell
Ryan McDonnell
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In Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC, No. 24-1541 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 13, 2026), the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's claim construction, vacated its final written decision, and remanded for further proceedings.

Netflix petitioned for an inter partes review of DivX's patent, asserting obviousness over a combination of prior art. The dispute centered on the construction of a claim limitation that required “locating encryption information that identifies encrypted portions of frames of video within the requested portions of the selected stream.” Over the dissent of one administrative law judge, the Board construed the limitation to require that the encryption information itself be located within the requested portions and concluded that Netflix had failed to show that the limitation was met by the prior art. Netflix appealed.

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