District Court's Claim Construction of a Softball Bat Patent Fouls Out

Case: Wilson Sporting Goods Co. v. Hillerach & Bradsby Co., Case No. 05-1103 (Fed. Cir. 3/23/06)

The One Sentence Summary: Claim constuction under which the parties stipulated that an accused device did not infringe was improperly narrow.


What They Were Fighting About: Patentee claimed infringement of a softball bat patent that incorporates interior structural members to improve the bat's impact response.

Federal Circuit Holdings:

• Despite the sparse record that impeded a full review, the appellate court founds flaws in the trial court's claim construction that led to the entry of the stipulated judgment of non-infringement and offered some analysis to guide the trial court upon remand.
• The trial court failed to consider the distinctions contained in the various claims that affect the meaning of the word "gap" in the claims.
• Whereas the trial court inferred great significance to the word "rigid" in the claims based on the prosecution history, the appellate court found "rigid" to be a very relative term that added nothing to the meaning of the claim.