Disclosure-Dedication Doctrine Can Bar Infringement Under the Doctrine of Equivalents Even When the Equivalency is Not Described in the Context of the Claimed Invention

The doctrine of equivalents is a judicially-created form of infringement whereby an accused product or process that fails to literally infringe a patent claim may nonetheless be found to infringe if there is an “equivalence” between the elements of the accused product or process and the claimed elements of the patented invention. See, e.g., Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., Ltd., 535 U.S. 722 (2002); Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chem. Co., 520 U.S. 17, 21, 29 (1997). The doctrine of equivalents is limited, however, by a number of exceptions including prosecution history estoppel and the disclosure-dedication doctrine.