Case Explained: SCHMEISSER GMBH v. AC-UNITY D.O.O

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Filed: 2026-07-30 The federal-circuit reversed the district court’s claim construction and partial summary judgment of invalidity, vacated the order dissolving a preliminary injunction, and remanded for further proceedings. The court held that the district court erred in concluding that distance-related claim terms in U.S. Patent No. 10,866,045 were indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112 because it conflated the definiteness standard with enablement and written description requirements. Applying the *Nautilus* standard, which requires claims to inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the invention with reasonable certainty, the Federal Circuit determined that the terms were clear on their face, readily measurable using conventional tools, and supported by the specification and prosecution history. The court reasoned that while a skilled artisan might lack sufficient guidance to build an operable device (an enablement issue), the claim terms themselves provided sufficient clarity regarding their scope. Consequently, the district court’s findings of indefiniteness were reversed, leading to the reversal of the summary judgment based on that finding and the vacation of the injunction dissolution. The court also exercised pendent appellate jurisdiction to review the non-appealable Markman and summary judgment orders because they were inextricably intertwined with the appealable order dissolving the preliminary injunction. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.