By Michael Borella — Infinity Computer Products (“Infinity”) sued Oki Data in the District of Delaware for infringement of four patents. The District Court found the patents invalid due to indefiniteness and the Federal Circuit affirmed. This case serves to illustrate two important points in patent law: (i) taking contradictory positions during prosecution will be held against the applicant, and (ii) the Federal Circuit will take said contradictory positions to an unnecessary extreme in order to support a holding of indefiniteness. Representative of the Infinity patents is U.S. Patent No. 6,894,811, claim 1 of which recites: A method of creating…
