ALJ Luckern Grants Summary Determination of Non-infringement in Inv. No. 337-TA-709
ALJ Luckern granted respondents Panasonic Corporation, Panasonic of North America, Victor Company of Japan Limited, JVC America Corp., Best Buy Purchasing, LLC, BestBuy.com, LLC, and Best Buy Stores, L.P., B & H Foto & Electronics Corp., Buy.com Inc., QVC, Inc. Crutchfield Corporation, and Computer Nerds International, Inc. motion finding non-infringement of claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 7,199,306 (‘306 patent). The commission investigative staff supported this motion. ALJ Luckern held that under the correct construction of “thickness,” there can be no literal infringement of claim 1 of the '306 patent and that complainant Freescale Semiconductor’s criticisms of the prior art printed circuit boards that were thinner than 0.35 mm during prosecution amounted to a legal disclaimer of a scope of equivalents encompassing those prior art PCBs. Accordingly, ALJ Luckern found that there can be no infringement of claim 1 of the '306 patent under the doctrine of equivalents because the Panasonic accused products fall within the scope of the disclaimer.
