Zircon Corp. v. Stanley Works

ORDER CONSTRUING CLAIM TERM AND GRANTING MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT OF NON-INFRINGEMENT

Defendant The Stanley Works (“Stanley”) moves for Summary Judgment of Non-Infringement of Plaintiff Zircon Corporation’s (“Zircon”) U.S. Patent No. 7,116,091 (the “'091 Patent”), which discloses a device for “ratiometric stud sensing.” The parties agree that the entire matter may potentially be decided as a matter of law based on application of the properly construed claim term “ratio” to the accused device. Defendant also contends that summary judgment of non-infringement can be granted based on the theories of disclosure-dedication and prosecution history estoppel. Having considered the parties’ respective arguments, the Court construes the term “ratio” as “a result of dividing two values” and GRANTS summary judgment of no literal infringement based on this construction. Additionally, summary judgment of non-infringement under the doctrine of equivalents is warranted based on prosecution history estoppel, and the theory of disclosure-dedication.

I. Background

A. The '091 Patent Claims

This case relates to electronic “stud-finders,” which are used for locating studs (i.e., structural…