TQ DELTA, LLC. v. DISH NETWORK LLC, decided July 10, 2019, Claim Interpretation

U.S. Patent No. 8,611,404 is directed to sleep state in a multicarrier system (pages 2-3). “Without needing to reinitialize” was interpreted to provide for avoiding any one step of initialization, not just avoiding all steps (pages 9-10). The claim does not recite a previous or first initialization, so reinitialize was interpreted to be repeating the same prior initialization (page 10). Other claims use “re” as a repetition (pages 10-11). The specification teaches resumption from earlier initialization, so does not teach avoiding all initialization (pages 11-12).

Hindsight: Each word has meaning in the claims. The suffix “re” teaches repetition. Initialization relates to a process, so it may be good to teach the process and what parts are to be avoided. With negative limitations, care should be taken to relate the scope especially where the negative relates to a process.