Announced Actions for September 28, 2004

Commission approval of amicus brief filing: The Commission has approved the filing of an amicus brief jointly with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the matter concerning Phillips v. AWH Corp., No. 03-1268 (Fed. Cir.). This brief has been filed en banc, urging the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to adopt a methodology for interpreting patent claims that gives primary consideration to the patent’s specification (description of the invention), rather than to dictionary definitions. The Commission’s interest is to advocate a methodology for claim construction that gives appropriate consideration to the patent’s description of the invention, so that patent claims are valid and of appropriate scope, and the appropriate level of competition is maintained.

The Commission vote approving the filing of the amicus brief, which can be found on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release, was 5-0. (FTC File No. P042122; the staff contact is Lawrence DeMille-Wagman, Office of the General Counsel, 202-326-2448.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.