More than One Way to Skin a Patent Under DOE: Vitiation in Lieu of Estoppel.

Mondaq Business Briefing, May, 2003

In a spring 2001 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a summary judgment of no doctrine of equivalents infringement of a Lockheed Martin satellite control patent by Space Systems/Loral (SSL), in view of an amendment based estoppel. Lockheed Martin Corp. v. Space Systems/Loral, Inc. In that 2001 decision, the Federal Circuit applied the Festo absolute bar rule. The U.S. Supreme Court, which had already granted certiorari in Festo, granted certiorari in Lockheed-Martin as well. After reversing Festo, the Supreme Court sent the Lockheed Martin case back to the Federal Circuit "for further consideration in light of" the Supreme Court's Festo decision. Now, on remand, the same three-judge Federal Circuit panel has again affirmed the district court...