Supreme Court vacates controversial Festo decision. (patent case) (Brief Article)

In a unanimous decision with ramifications for many patent litigations, the Supreme Court vacated the Federal Circuit's controversial en banc decision in Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co, Ltd. [234 F.3d 558 (Fed. Cir. 2000)] and held that a patentee is not necessarily barred from asserting infringement under the judicially created doctrine of equivalents when claims have been narrowed during proceedings before the Patent Office. [Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co, Ltd., No. 00-1543, 535 U.S.-- (May 28, 2002).] In November 2000, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit adopted a rigid "complete bar" approach to the doctrine, holding that, if a claim element is narrowed during the prosecution of a patent application for any reason related to patentability, the patentee is precluded from later alleging …