Aipla model Patent Jury Instructions

Introduction

The 2016 Version

In the Winter of 2014, the Patent Litigation Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association decided to continue the task of updating the AIPLA Model Patent Jury Instructions (“Instructions”) to take into account changes to the law since the previous version of the Instructions were published. The Instructions were originally created in 1997 and were updated previously in 2005, 2008, 2012, and 2015. A Subcommittee was formed to review recent case law and make any necessary changes to the Instructions to conform to the significant changes in patent law over the last several years. The Subcommittee also continued its efforts to simplify the Instructions and to improve the formatting so that the electronic version of the Instructions is easier to navigate. The current revision includes case law through February 2016.

One of the fundamental goals of the Instructions is to provide a neutral set of jury instructions that would not be biased in favor of either the patent owner or the accused infringer. These Model Instructions are not intended to address every conceivable issue that might arise in patent litigation. Instead, Instructions are provided on those issues that typically arise in patent litigation and that have clear precedential support. It is incumbent upon the litigants to tailor these Instructions to the specific issues in their particular case and to simplify the tasks for the Court and the jury by not providing superfluous or confusing instructions. It is also intended that these Instructions will be used in conjunction with other instructions dealing with non-patent issues such as credibility, and that the trial court will further the jury’s understanding of these Instructions by relating the legal principles in the Instructions to the particular factual contentions of the parties.

To further these goals and to enhance the litigants’ ability to customize the Instructions to a particular case, these revised Instructions continue the use of bracketed terminology for certain consistent terms. This enables the litigants to use the find-and-replace feature of a word processing program to insert case-specific facts. Examples of the terms are:

[subject matter]
[the patentee]
[the Plaintiff]
[the Defendant]
[full patent number]
[abbreviated patent number]
[claims in dispute]
[allegedly infringing product]
[invention date]
[U.S. filing date]
[critical date]

[effective filing date]

[anticipating patent]
[alleged analogous art]
[alleged prior publication]
[alleged device on sale]
[infringement notice date]
[lawsuit filing date]
[beginning infringement date]
[collateral products]
[the Plaintiff’s product]

In addition to these “find-and-replace” terms, brackets were also used to indicate where various terminology could be used to customize these Instructions to a particular case. For example, to take into account the differences between product and method patents, there will be Instructions that include “[[product] [method]]” and the like. Users of these Instructions should make appropriate changes, for example replacing “system” with “product” or replacing “method” with “process.”

To assist judges, “Practice Notes” are provided throughout these Instructions. The Practice Notes are not meant to be statements of law or included in the instructions but are there to provide guidance and insight based on the practical experience of judges and attorneys.

The Subcommittee substantially completed these revisions in the fourth quarter of 2016. The AIPLA Board of Directors approved these Instructions for publication in 2017.

January 2017
Ajeet Pai and Aden Allen
Co-Chairs, Model Patent Jury Instructions Subcommittee
Patent Litigation Committee
American Intellectual Property Law Association

2. Preliminary Jury Instructions

Members of the jury:

Now that you have been sworn, I have the following preliminary instructions for your guidance on the nature of the case and on your role as jurors.

1. The Nature of the Action and the Parties

This is a patent case. The patents involved in this case relate to [subject matter] technology. [BRIEFLY DESCRIBE TECHNOLOGY INVOLVED].

During the trial, the parties will offer testimony to familiarize you with this technology. For your convenience, the parties have also prepared a Glossary of some of the technical terms to which they may refer during the trial, which will be distributed to you.

[The Plaintiff] is the owner of a patent, which is identified by the Patent Office number: [full patent number] (which may be called “the [abbreviated patent number] patent”); [IDENTIFY ADDITIONAL PATENTS]. This patent may also be referred to as “[the Plaintiff]’s patent.” [The Defendant] is the other party here.

i. United States Patents

Patents are granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (sometimes called the “PTO” or “USPTO”). A patent gives the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, offering to sell, or selling [[the patented invention] [a product made by the patented process]] within the United States or importing it into the United States. During the trial, the parties may offer testimony to familiarize you with how one obtains a patent from the PTO, but I will give you a general background here.

To obtain a patent, an application for a patent must be filed with the PTO. The application includes a specification, which should have a written description of the invention, how it works, and how to make and use it so as to enable others skilled in the art to do so. The specification concludes with one or more numbered sentences or paragraphs. These are called the “claims” of the patent. The purpose of the claims is to particularly point out what the applicant regards as the invention and to define the scope of the patent owner’s exclusive rights.

After an application for a patent is filed with the PTO, the application is reviewed by a trained PTO Patent Examiner. The Patent Examiner reviews (or examines) the patent application to determine whether the claims are patentable and whether the specification adequately describes the invention claimed. In examining a patent application, the Patent Examiner searches records available to the PTO for what is referred to as “prior art,” and he or she also reviews prior art submitted by the applicant.

When the parties are done presenting evidence, I will give you more specific instructions as to what constitutes prior art in this case. Generally, prior art is previously existing technical information and knowledge against which the Patent Examiners determine whether or not the claims in the application are patentable.¹ The Patent Examiner considers, among other things, whether each claim defines an invention that is new, useful, and not obvious in view of this prior art. In addition, the Patent Examiner may consider whether the claims are directed to subject matter that is not eligible for patenting, such as natural phenomena, laws of nature, and abstract ideas.

Following the prior art search and examination of the application, the Patent Examiner advises the applicant in writing what the Patent Examiner has found and whether any claim is patentable (in other words, “allowed”). This writing from the Patent Examiner is called an “Office Action.” More often than not, the initial Office Action by the Patent Examiner rejects the claims. The applicant then responds to the Office Action and sometimes changes the claims or submits new claims. This process may go back and forth between the Patent Examiner and the applicant for several months or even years until the Patent Examiner is satisfied that the application and claims are patentable. At that time, the PTO “issues” or “grants” a patent with the allowed claims.

The collection of papers generated by the Patent Examiner and the applicant during this time of corresponding back and forth is called the “prosecution history.” You may also hear the “prosecution history” referred to as the “file history” or the “file wrapper.”

In this case, it is ultimately for you to decide, based on my instructions to you, whether [the Defendant] has shown that the patent claims are invalid.

ii. Patent Litigation

Someone is said to be infringing a claim of a patent when they, without permission from the patent owner, import, make, use, offer to sell, or sell [[the patented invention] [a product made by the patented process]], as defined by the claims, within the United States before the term of the patent expires. A patent owner who believes someone is infringing the exclusive rights of a patent may bring a lawsuit, like this one, to attempt to stop the alleged infringing acts or to recover damages, which generally means money paid by the infringer to the patent owner to compensate for the harm caused by the infringement. The patent owner must prove infringement of the claims of the patent. The patent owner must also prove the amount of damages he or she is entitled to.

A patent is presumed to be valid. In other words, it is presumed to have been properly granted. But that presumption of validity can be overcome if clear and convincing evidence is presented that proves the patent is invalid. Someone accused of infringing a patent may deny that they infringe and/or prove that the asserted claims of the patent are invalid. If a party challenges the validity of the patent, you must decide, based on the instructions I will give you, whether the challenger has overcome the presumption of validity with proof that the asserted claims of the patent are invalid. The party challenging validity must prove invalidity by clear and convincing evidence. I will discuss more of this topic later.

I will now briefly explain the parties’ basic contentions in more detail.