Obvious Drafting Slip Doesn’t Doom Patent, Federal Circuit Rules

A patent isn’t invalid just because of a small wording mistake when its meaning is clear, a federal appeals court ruled, reviving Canatex Completion Solutions Inc.’s oil- and gas-well tool patent.

A Texas district judge erred in finding indefinite Canatex’s US Patent No. 10,794,122, which covers a two-part oil-well device that can detach if one part gets stuck underground, Judge Richard G. Taranto wrote for a three-judge panel in a precedential opinion issued Wednesday at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The decision sends Canatex’s infringement claims against Wellmatics LLC and other units of GR Energy ...