A Lecture Given by Judge Rader of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

On June 5, 2009, I attend a lecture jointly held by Law School and School of Intellectual Property Rights about U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The lecturer is Judge Rader (RANDALL R. RADER) from U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The lecture is composed of three parts:
(1)  Brief introduction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit;
(2)  The analysis on Claim Construction in Patent lawsuit;
(3)  Mutual interlocution

Judge Rader gave a brief introduction to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and indicated the importance of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit lies in the fact that it is the only circuit court designated to hear cases of citizens suing government for money and no jury will participated in such cases.

Moreover, as a response to the requirement of the students present, Judge Rader taught the students how to analysis the structure and expression of claims in a patent lawsuit (Claim Construction) through vivid presentations and fancy multimedia. He raised three canons for claims construction:
Canon 1: intrinsic vs extrinsic
Canon 2: ordinary meaning
Canon 3: dictionary & ordinary meaning

He told us the importance of context in patent claims by explaining "cut" in five different contexts. The conclusion is meaning is a function of context and usage and each of these is a further function of various social and technical influence.

Throughout the lecture, Judge Rader shared the opinion that he hoped the students present can be the best lawyers in China because greatest lawyers are the essential part of a comprehensive and robust legal system.

Due to the limited time, there is little for mutual interlocution. However, after the lecture, many students clustered round Judge Rader for instruction and Judge Rader answered with great enthusiasm. My team and I pay a lot attention to the research of global intellectual property rights research. Therefore, I raised a question about the US copyright issue hoping to help the website to share more global legal system with our users under the guidance of Judge Rader. Due to the lagged behind domestic laws in intellectual property rights area compared with the American, such a lecture will arouse thousands of student of our country to the research on intellectual property rights area and widen their vision and open their mind and a instruction for the understanding of our research as well.