"The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on Wednesday granted a case-dispositive motion for judgment in favor of Apple Inc., finding the single patent claim asserted by Immervision, Inc., invalid for lack of enablement. In a memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika adopted a magistrate judge's report and recommendation that Immervision's claim was an impermissible "single-means claim," a seldom-invoked doctrine of patent law."
"Claim 21 was the only asserted claim and depends on the now-cancelled claim 17. Claim 17 recited a "panoramic objective lens comprising: optical means for projecting a panorama into an image plane of the objective lens," followed by language describing the function of the optical means. Claim 21 further specified that the lens "compresses the center of the image and the edges of the image, and expands an intermediate zone.""
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware granted judgment for Apple, finding Immervision's asserted claim invalid for lack of enablement. Claim 21, dependent on now-cancelled claim 17, was drafted in means-plus-function format and described a panoramic objective lens with optical means that project and reshape image zones. The court adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation that the claim constituted a single-means claim because it recited only one means rather than a combination of elements. The court concluded that a single-means claim is not enabled under 35 U.S.C. § 112 and that no provision saves such a claim, rendering the suit case-dispositive.
Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law
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