United States Federal Circuit - December 2000 Opinion Summaries

PITSKER v. OFFICE OF PERSONELL MGMT.

Government Benefits
5 USC 8337(a) does not restrict eligibility for enhanced disability payments to only those law enforcement officers who meet the minimum age and...

VANGUARD PROD. CORP. v. PARKER HANNIFIN CORP.

Intellectual Property, Patent
A dictionary is not prohibited extrinsic evidence as a resource of claim construction, and method of manufacture does not itself limit the claim, even...

AMOCO OIL CO. v. US

Tax Law
While the export provision of the Harbor Maintenance Tax, 4461(c)(1)(A), is unconstitutional, it is severable from the remainder of the statute, so...

JOWETT, INC. v. US

Contracts, Government Contracts
Where terms in a contract have an accepted industry meaning different from the ordinary meaning, there may be amiguity sufficient to rely on parol...

CERMAK v. BABBITT

Indian Law
28 USC 1353, providing district court jurisdiction over disputes involving an "allotment of land," does not cover Indian Land Certificates issued...

STRYKER CO. v. DAVOL INC.

Intellectual Property, Patent
In reaching a verdict of willful infringement, a jury may reasonably find that reliance on counsel's opinions was not reasonable, that the defendant...

DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS v. GOBER

Administrative Law
The rule codified at 38 CFR 20.1404(b) is invalid because it operates to prevent Board of Veterans- Appeals review of any claim of clear and...

HANNON v. DEPT. OF JUSTICE

Government Benefits
The Merit Systems Protection Board correctly determined that the petitioner was not a law enforcement officer under the six criteria of Bingaman v....

APPLE COMPUTER, INC. v. ARTICULATE SYSTEMS, INC.

Cyberspace Law, Intellectual Property, Patent
Language in a claim preamble acts as a claim limitation only when such language serves to "give meaning to a claim and properly define the invention,"...

RUIZ v. A.B. CHANCE CO.

Intellectual Property, Patent
District court must make factual findings on obviousness as set forth by the Supreme Court in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17-18, 148 USPQ...