In an opinion addressing the standard for claim construction of
a patent that expires during reexamination, the US Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal
Board’s (PTAB’s or Board’s) decision finding all
challenged claims invalid, but found that the PTAB had used the
incorrect standard for its claim construction. In re:
CSB-System Int’l, Inc., Case No. 15-1832 (Fed. Cir.,
Aug. 9, 2016) (Stoll, J).
CSB is the owner of a patent directed to a circuit arrangement
for integrating an electronic data processing system with telephone
systems connected to an integrated services digital network
telephone network. A third party successfully petitioned for ex
parte reexamination of the patent. During the resulting
reexamination proceeding, the examiner construed several claim
terms, applying the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI)
standard for the terms “personal computer” and
“LAN server,” and, using these constructions, rejected
the
