By: Mel R. Quintos

On June 13, 2014, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided the case of Triton Tech of Texas, LLC v. Nintendo of America, Inc., Triton Tech having appealed a district court’s judgment that the means-plus-function term “integrator means” renders the claims of Triton’s U.S. Patent No. 5,181,181 invalid for indefiniteness under 35 U.S.C. §112.

Triton sued Nintendo alleging that Nintendo’s Wii RemoteTM, when used with another accessory, infringes Triton’s patent. An element in the claimed input device of a representative claim recites:

integrator means associated with said input device for integrating said acceleration signals over time to produce velocity signals for linear translation along each of . . . first, second and third axes. [Emphasis added.–click here to read more—