Mettler-Toledo, Inc. v. B-Tek Scales, LLC

In determining the construction of a means-plus function claim “[a] court must look to the specification to determine the structures that correspond to the claimed function."

Mettler-Toledo, Inc. (“Mettler”) appealed the District Court’s decision finding that the defendant had not infringed claims of their U.S. patent no. 4,815,547 (“‘547 patent”) and holding that the claims involved in U.S. patent no. 4,804,052 (“’052 patent”) were invalid. B-Tek Scales, LLC (“B-Tek”) cross-appealed denial of sanctions for alleged withholding and destruction of relevant documents. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed all holdings of the District Court. On appeal Mettler challenged the claim construction construing the patent to require a multiple slope integrating A/D converter rather than any generic A/D converter. The Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court’s construction stating “[a] court must look to the specification to determine the structures that correspond to the claimed function” and found that when the converter was used in the patent it was referring to a multiple slope integrating A/D converter. With the construction construed correctly, the court found that jury had facts to support its determination of noninfringement and invalidity of the claims. The Court of Appeals agreed with the dismissal of the cross-appeal finding that Mettler had disclosed that documents requested had been destroyed and the documents were not particularly relevant to the case. AFFIRMED.