CAFC: General Purpose Computer Does Not Include RISC Processor

Hutchins v. Zoll Medical (Fed. Cir. 2007)

[Updated] Hutchins is an individual inventor and represented himself pro [se] before the district court and on appeal. Hutchins’ patent relates to computer aided CPR. (U.S. patent no. 5,913,685). The district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Zoll.

Hutchins lost on claim construction — with the courts holding that a “general purpose computer” does not include the RISC processors. The prosecution history made this finding easy as the “general purpose computer” limitation was added during prosecution to avoid “similar devices with dedicated microprocessor units.”