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Remedies Keyed to Tabb, 8th
Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc.
Citation:
517 U.S. 370, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996)Facts
Petitioner Markman owned United States Reissue Patent No. 33,054 for an “Inventory Control and Reporting System for Drycleaning Stores,” which described a system using keyboards, data processors, and bar-coded tickets readable by optical detectors to monitor and report the status and location of clothing in dry-cleaning establishments. Respondent Westview manufactured a similar product that also used keyboards, processors, and bar-coded tickets with optical detectors. Markman sued for patent infringement, and the case was tried before a jury. The central dispute involved the meaning of the word “inventory” in Markman’s independent claim 1, which stated the system could “maintain an inventory total” and “detect and localize spurious additions to inventory.” Expert testimony was presented regarding the meaning of this claim language. The jury found infringement, but the District Court granted Westview’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, construing “inventory” to encompass both cash inventory and physical inventory of clothing articles, and finding that Westview’s system, which only tracked invoices and transaction totals, did not infringe.
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