Monday, September 28, 2009

Modification of Claim Construction in Jury Instruction Warrants New Trial

The court granted plaintiff's motion for a new trial where, after the close of plaintiff's case at trial, the court modified its previous claim construction based on evidence presented during trial. "Since this construction came after Plaintiffs had presented their evidence, Plaintiffs were left in the position of having presented expert witness testimony and graphics that were not supported by the Court’s eventual construction. . . . [A]fter a review of the evidence and the trial transcript, the Court finds that the number and significance of the claim terms undefined, defined after key testimony, and that were poorly defined allowed prejudicial error to creep into the trial process such that substantial justice was not done."

Avago Tech. General IP PTE Ltd. et al. v. Elan Microelectronics Corp. et al.,
5-04-cv-05385 (CAND September 23, 2009) (Ware, J.)

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