Failure to disclose structure fatal to Triton Tech at CAFC

Triton Tech of Texas lost its appeal to the CAFC, with a claim term in a means plus function claim being found indefinite; there were also issues of waiver of argument.

The relevant portion of the claim was


integrator means associated with said input device
for integrating said acceleration signals over time
to produce velocity signals for linear translation
along each of . . . first, second and third axes



with "integrator means" not being defined


The '181 patent does not further explain how the
numerical integration is performed, only that it is per-
formed in a “conventional manner.”


The problem was


“‘[n]umerical integration’ . . .is not a single
algorithm, but rather a whole class of algorithms that can
be used to calculate definite integrals . . . .”Id.
at 16. The district court thus concluded that the
asserted claims were indefinite. 1 Id. at 15 – 16
(citing Aristocrat Techs. Austr. Pty Ltd. v. Int’l Gaming Tech.
, 521 F.3d 1328, 1334 (Fed. Cir. 2008)

AND


The fact that various numerical integration algo-
rithms may have been known to one of ordinary skill in
the art does not rescue the claims .
“[A] bare statement that known techniques or methods can be used does not
disclose structure.”
Biomedino, LLC v. Water Techs. Corp., 490 F.3d 946, 953 (Fed. Cir. 2007);




link: http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/13-1476.Opinion.6-10-2014.1.PDF