Federal Circuit Requires Preservation of Claim Construction Objection or Lose it

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has emphasized the need for litigants to preserve any objections they might have to the district court’s claim construction in order to preserve the issue for appeal, as well as the need for a challenger to patent validity to be cognizant of its burden in order to support a jury verdict of anticipation or obviousness. Koito Mfg. v. Turn-Key Tech., Case No. 03-1565, -1603 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 25, 2004) (Gajarsa, J.).

Turn-Key owned U.S. Patent No. 5,045,268 (the `268 patent) directed to a method of strengthening injection-molded plastics by cross-laminating layers of plastics. Koito brought a declaratory judgment action against Turn-Key, seeking judgment that the `268 patent was declared invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed by Koito’s products. After the Markman hearing, a jury found Turn-Key’s patent invalid and not infringed. Turn-Key appealed.