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Omission Of Claim Feature More Significant To Claim Interpretation Than That Feature's Inclusion In Specification Embodiment

Client Alert | 1 min read | 07.02.07

The Federal Circuit, in Saunders Group, Inc. v. Comfortrac, Inc., (No. 2006-1576, June 27, 2007), reverses and remands a district court’s grant of summary judgment finding noninfringement, after determining that the district court improperly limited the scope of certain claims to include a feature that was not recited in the claims. In so doing, the panel concludes that the change in claim language between the parent application and the continuation-in-part application, and the resulting inclusion of the particular claim feature in certain claims and its omission from other claims, “is a sufficiently powerful indicator as to the proper construction of the asserted claims that outweighs the portion of the specification in which the invention is described narrowly.” The claim construction issue is made particularly difficult, says the panel, by the failure of the applicants to expressly state to the examiner the extent to which they intended their new claims to depart from the scope of the claims in the predecessor applications.

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Client Alert | 5 min read | 06.11.25

Steel Tariffs Doubled: How the Hike Could Reshape Construction Projects at Home and Abroad

To date the Trump Administration has issued multiple proclamations imposing varying rates of import duties on steel and aluminum and certain derivatives, including construction materials. These measures have added volatility and financial pressures to the construction sector both in the United States and abroad. Most recently, on June 3, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, doubling tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, effective June 4, 2025. This action aims to counteract the continued influx of lower-priced, excess steel and aluminum imports that, according to the administration, threaten U.S. national security by undermining domestic production capacity. The proclamation notes that while prior tariffs provided some price support, they were insufficient to achieve the necessary capacity utilization rates for sustained industry health and defense readiness. The United Kingdom remains temporarily exempt at the 25% rate until July 9, per the U.S.-U.K. Economic Prosperity Deal....

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