Indianapolis Indiana – Following a Markman hearing, Judge Sarah Evans Barker considered 18 disputed terms in five patents owned by Plaintiff Bonutti Research, Inc. of Effingham, Illinois and licensed exclusively to Plaintiff Joint Active Systems, Inc., also of Effingham, Illinois. Fourteen of the terms were construed. The court held that the remaining four needed no further construction.
The patents-in-suit are: U.S. Patent No. 5,848,979, U.S. Patent No. 7,955,286, U.S. Patent No. 7,404,804, U.S. Patent No. 7,112,179 and U.S. Patent No. 8,784,343, which had been issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It is alleged that Defendant Lantz Medical, Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana infringed those patents.
The following terms were construed by the court:
• “drive means” (construed in two different contexts)
• “a main gear which is connected with said first cuff means and is rotatable with said first cuff means relative to said base”
• “first extension member”
• “second extension member having an arcuate shape extending therefrom”
• “arcuate shape”
• “arcuate path”
• “travels along an arcuate path through the first extension member”
• “removably attachable to the finger”
• “curved path”
• “a first arm member for coupling to the first body portion and defining a curved path”
• “movable along the curved path”
• “operatively coupled”
• “drive assembly”• “lockout element”
The court determined that no further construction was necessary for the following terms:
• “base”
• “gear means”
• “second gear is at least partially disposed in a recess in said base”• “bending mechanism”
The January 21, 2016 decision was authored by Judge Sarah Evans Barker in Case No. 1:14-cv-00609-SEB-MJD.