UPDATE: On July 6, 2012, a panel rehearing was granted in this case that modified the decision by withdrawing all of Section III concerning what constitutes a Commission determination subject to appeal.  Please see our July 6, 2012 post for more details.

Today, Wed., Feb. 29, 2012, in General Electric v. ITC, No. 2010-1223, the Federal Circuit (Rader, Newman and Linn) ruled that “issues decided by initial determination and not substantively reviewed by the full Commission are deemed determinations of the Commission … and entitled to appeal … .”  The Court thus rejected the ITC’s argument that the only issues subject to appeal were those specifically decided by the full Commission.

The Court also provided incremental guidance on the claim construction issue of whether a structural limitation must be separate from another.  The Court ruled that the limitation “a [shunt] circuit coupled with the input of the inverter … to shunt current from the inverter …” did not require the shunt circuit to be entirely external to the inverter.