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].