Judge Lourie on Boilerplate

An appellant was arguing to the court recently that boilerplate preceding the claims section of a patent should preserve a broad claim interpretation even though the specification taught a single embodiment and made a rather strong statement about that embodiment.  That prompted Judge Lourie to comment that such boilerplate does not expand the disclosure: [Listen].

Other judges have given boilerplate more importance.  See, e.g., [Abraham Lincoln’s Boilerplate]. For other posts on boilerplate, see [Associate Solicitor Encourages Federal Circuit to Apply Boilerplate from Specification] and  [Summary of the Invention].

You can listen to the entire oral argument that is referenced above [here].

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