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Thorough Prior Art Searching and Careful Claim Drafting after Festo and Johnson & Johnston

By Andrew J. Olek
April 01, 2004

In 1963 the Supreme Court noted that patent applications “constitute one of the most difficult legal instruments to draw with accuracy.” (See Sperry v. Florida Ex. Rel. Florida Bar, 373 U.S. 379, 383 (1963)). Recent decisions by both the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit have made this task even more difficult. In particular, the Supreme Court's 2002 decision in Festo v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., Ltd. (535 U.S. 722) and the Federal Circuit's 2003 Festo remand decision, as well as the Federal Circuit's 2002 Johnson & Johnston (285 F. 3d 1046) (344 F. 3d 1359) decisions, all had significant narrowing effects on the doctrine of equivalents.

Festo

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