February 27: Webcast - "Configured to"—Patent Claim Friend or Foe?

The number of issued U.S. patents having at least one independent claim that includes the phrase “configured to” has increased six-fold since the year 2000. But what does that expression really mean?
To date, most of the time the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) gives full weight to the features characterized by that expression. In a minority of decisions, however, the Board holds otherwise. What makes the difference?
And in a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Chief Judge Rader argued that no patentable weight need be given to claim expressions that describe how a device is configured to perform a particular task. Has the PTAB been wrong most of the time?
During this webinar Fitch Even partner Steven G. Parmelee will address these topics and more:

• A brief history of “configured to”
• A brief related history of functional claim language
• Possible substitutes for “configured to”
• Possible drafting solutions to avoid bad results with “configured to”

Title: 
 "Configured to"—Patent Claim Friend or Foe?
When/Where: 
February 27, 2014
9:00 am PST / 10:00 am MST / 11:00 am CST / 12:00 noon EST
Live webcast; registration required.
Speaker: 
Fitch Even partner Steven G. Parmelee
Presented by: 
Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP
Credit:
1 hr CLE CA/IL/NE; Other states may also reward credit upon attendee request.
Cost: 
Free. Registration required.

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