Appeals Court Undoes Design-Patent Verdict Over Jury Instruction

A district court judge was wrong to expand a design patent through jury instructions that redefined a claimed feature, the Federal Circuit ruled, wiping out one infringement finding and forcing a retrial in a dispute over illuminated school-bus signs.

Judge Hala Y. Jarbou erred by telling jurors the “transparency” limitation in Smartrend Manufacturing Group Inc.’s US Patent No. D932,930 includes translucent surfaces, Judge Timothy B. Dyk wrote for a three-judge panel in a precedential opinion issued Thursday in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The panel vacated a permanent injunction barring Opti-Luxx Inc. from selling the accused ...