Case Explained: RAVIN CROSSBOWS, LLC v. SQUIRES

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Filed: 2026-08-06 The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s final written decision holding claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 9,354,015 unpatentable as anticipated by prior art. The court applied a de novo standard of review to the Board’s claim construction, determining that the plain and ordinary meaning of the term “mounted to” is “connected to, either directly or indirectly.” The court rejected Ravin Crossbows’ proposed construction, which limited the term to connections allowing “only rotation about a fixed axis,” reasoning that such an interpretation would render the claim’s separate “rotatable around a first/second axis” limitations superfluous. The court further held that the Board properly declined to adopt the district court’s claim construction from related litigation, noting that while the district court agreed on the plain and ordinary meaning standard, the parties disputed the specific definition, allowing the Board to determine the correct construction based on intrinsic evidence. Consequently, the patent claims remain invalid. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.