US Philips Corp. v. Iwasaki Elec. Co. Ltd.

U.S. Philips Corporation appeals from a final judgment entered pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) in favor of Iwasaki Electric Company Ltd. by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Specifically, U.S. Philips challenges the district court’s decision to limit U.S. Philips’s right of recovery to acts of infringement after the complaint was filed, based on a failure of notice; its claim construction ruling relating to U.S. Patent No. 5,109,181 (“the ’181 patent”); and its decision to grant partial summary judgment of noninfringement as to those accused products not subject to the temporal limitation of liability. Because Iwasaki was properly on notice of potential infringement before the filing of the complaint, we reverse the district court’s determination that notice was inadequate until the instant suit was filed and the concomitant limitation of liability. We affirm the district court’s claim construction, and with it the entry of partial summary judgment of no literal infringement. Finally, because the district court erred in concluding that the doctrine of equivalents is foreclosed as to the disputed claim limitation, we vacate the partial summary judgment of noninfringement under the doctrine of equivalents, and we remand for consideration of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents as well as for consideration of literal infringement from June 7, 2000, the date notice was provided, until the filing of the complaint.

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