USA: In re Smith International, Inc, United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, No. 2016-2303, 26 September 2017

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s construction of the term "body" disclosed in multiple claims of a downhole drilling tool patent has been reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as unreasonably overbroad and contrary to descriptions in the patent’s specification. The Board’s rejection of the challenged claims following inter partes reexamination was reversed because the Board’s anticipation and obviousness findings necessarily depended on the erroneous claim construction (In re Smith International, Inc., September 26, 2017, Lourie, A.).

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.