Poly-America, L.P. v. API Indus., Inc.

The specification and prosecution history of Poly-America’s patent contain clear and unequivocal statements that the inventor intended to limit the claimed invention to a trash bag with “short seals” at its upper corners that extend inwardly to narrow the bag’s upper opening. Poly-America sued API for infringement. Poly-America proposed that “short seal” be construed as “a seal that inseparably welds or joins the first and second elastic drawstrings and the first and second panels of the bag.” The district court instead adopted API’s proposed construction: “A seal for securing the elastic drawstring, which seal is located adjacent to a side seal, and that is not substantially aligned with the side seal, but extends inwardly from the interior edge of the side seal,” as consistent with the specification and the prosecution history. Under that construction of short seal, the accused device would not infringe because API’s accused bags are conventional drawstring trash bags with short seals that are substantially aligned with the side seal—i.e., the short seals do not extend inwardly, so the width of the relaxed upper opening is equal to the bag proper width. The Federal Circuit affirmed. Given the inventor’s disavowal, the district court correctly construed the term “short seal” to require that such seals extend inwardly. View "Poly-America, L.P. v. API Indus., Inc." on Justia Law