KHIKS partner Jonathan Steinsapir was quoted by Law360 in Ryan Davis’ article about the Federal Circuit’s recent split decision upholding the de novo standard for appellate review of claim construction.
The en banc ruling in Lighting Ballast Control LLC v. Universal Lighting Technologies Inc. affirmed the precedent set in 1998 in Cybor Corp. v. FAS Technologies, Inc. that holds that an appellate court is not obliged to follow a lower court’s construction of patent claims, which means that patent litigants dissatisfied with verdicts below will continue to use the appeal process as a do-over.
Jonathan’s view: “This is an issue that needs to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. This is why we have a Supreme Court, to resolve tough issues.”
