Federal Circuit Upholds De Novo Claim Construction

In today's Lighting Ballast v. Philips Electronics case, the en banc Federal Circuit upheld the previous Cybor case, which provides for de novo review of claim construction. The court took the case en banc to decide whether or not to overrule Cybor and allow for deferential review of a district court's factual findings. The vote was 6 in favor of upholding Cybor and 4 against, showing the the CAFC remains deeply split on some issues.