Today I received a copy of the June 15, 2007 Markman Hearing Ruling in the Technology Properties Ltd. and Patriot Scientific Corp. v. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. et al. case from a reader.

Below are excerpts from Judge Ward's ruling in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division:

I. Introduction

Plaintiffs Technology Properties Limited (“TPL”) and Patriot Scientific Corp. accuse multiple defendants of infringing United States Patent Nos. 5,809,336 (“the ‘336 patent”) entitled “High Performance Microprocessor Having Variable Speed System Clock,” 6,598,148 (“the ‘148 patent”) entitled “High Performance Microprocessor Having Variable Speed System Clock,” and 5,784,584 (“the ‘584 patent”) entitled “High Performance Microprocessor Using Instructions that Operate within Instruction Groups.” This opinion resolves the parties’ various claim construction disputes.

II. Background of the Technology

The ‘336 patent discloses a mechanism to improve the speed of microprocessor operations. First, a variable speed clock circuit is fabricated on the same chip as the microprocessor. By placing the clock circuitry on the microprocessor, the clock will be subject to the same variations in operating conditions as the microprocessor. Second, the slower input/output clock is separated from the system clock. The ‘148 patent also discloses a mechanism to improve the speed of the microprocessor. In addition to the on-chip clock described in the ‘336 patent, the microprocessor of the ‘148 patent includes memory on a majority of the microprocessor substrate. The ‘584 patent addresses a bottleneck problem where the computing speed of the microprocessor depends on how quickly instructions can be loaded from memory into the instruction register of the microprocessor.

III. General Principles Governing Claim Construction

“A claim in a patent provides the metes and bounds of the right which the patent confers on the patentee to exclude others from making, using or selling the protected invention.” Burke, Inc. v. Bruno Indep. Living Aids, Inc., 183 F.3d 1334, 1340 (Fed. Cir. 1999). Claim construction is an issue of law for the court to decide. Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 52 F.3d 967, 970-71 (Fed. Cir. 1995) (en banc), aff’d, 517 U.S. 370 (1996). To ascertain the meaning of claims, the court looks to three primary sources: the claims, the specification, and the prosecution history. Markman, 52 F.3d at 979. Under the patent law, the specification must contain a written description of the invention that enables one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. A patent’s claims must be read in view of the specification, of which they are a part. Id. For claim construction purposes, the description may act as a sort of dictionary, which explains the invention and may define terms used in the claims. Id. “One purpose for examining the specification is to determine if the patentee has limited the scope of the claims.” Watts v. XL Sys., Inc., 232 F.3d 877, 882 (Fed. Cir. 2000). Nonetheless, it is the function of the claims, not the specification, to set forth the limits of the patentee’s claims. Otherwise, there would be no need for claims.

V. Conclusion

The Court adopts the constructions set forth in this opinion for the disputed terms of the ‘336 patent, the ‘148 patent, and the ‘584 patent. The parties are ordered that they may not refer, directly or indirectly, to each other’s claim construction positions in the presence of the jury. Likewise, the parties are ordered to refrain from mentioning any portion of this opinion, other than the actual definitions adopted by the Court, in the presence of the jury. Any reference to claim construction proceedings is limited to informing the jury of the definitions adopted by the Court.

Attached is the full ruling for the details of the Court's construction of each of the disputed claims (Download markman_hearing_ruling_on_6152007.doc).

http://infringement.blogs.com/philip...

I hope that this now clarifies the role of a Markman hearing.

Be well