Court construes 15 terms from five patents-in-suit
Affymetrix, Inc. v. Illumina, Inc., No. 04-901-JJF, Aug. 16, 2006.
Farnan, J. The court construed 15 terms after a Markman hearing on April 20, 2006.
The invention claims relate to methods and apparatus for conducting analysis of unknown polymer sequences using microarrays of known polymer sequences and associated technology. The court largely rejects limitations in Defendant’s proposed constructions. Where “substrate” was expressly defined in the specification, the two sentences following the definition were not held to be limiting and merely descriptive. Statements made in prosecution did not amount to clear and unmistakable disclaimer regarding the scope of one claim. The court references a Random House Webster definition in construing “housing,” but does not otherwise rely on extrinsic evidence.
