The Summary of the Invention Supports Narrow Claim Construction

Emergis Technologies, Inc. v. PNM Resources, [2007-1247](January 31, 2008)[MORAN, Gajarsa, Dyk] NON-PRECEDENTIAL The Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the district courts that none of the accused products infringes U.S. Patent No. 6,044,362.
BRIEF: The patent in suit related to a bill payment system, and at issue was the construction of "directly" which defedants argued without intervention by a third party. Finding support in the specification, and in particular criticism of prior art systems that employed third parties, the Federal Circuit agreed. The Federal Circuit also agreed that the claims as construed were not infringed. There was no evidence that the third parties employed by defendants were "agents" of the defendants, and thus lost their third-party status. Also at issue was "customer invoice account number" which the patentee argued referred to the customer’s unique account and not individual invoices. The Federal Circuit disagreed, noting that the summary of the invention used the phrases "invoice account number" and "customer invoice number" interchangeably, but "invoice account number" was never used interchangeably with "account number" or "customer number." The Federal Circuit said that because the summary of the invention supports a narrow interpretation of the term, we hold that the correct construction of "customer invoice account number" is only an invoice number.