When a patent issues with a mistake, a certificate of correction can be obtained to correct it under certain circumstances. 35 U.S.C. §§ 254, 255. When an issued claim "omits a material limitation, and such omission is not evident on the face of the patent, the patentee cannot assert that claim until it has been corrected by the PTO. " H-W Tech., L.C. v. Overstock.com, Inc., 758 F.3d 1329, 1335 (Fed. Cir. 2014).
H-W Technology was an appeal from an infringement suit asserting U.S. Patent No. 7,525,955 ("the '955 patent"), in which H-W Technology ("H-W") alleged infringement of claim 9, among others. Claim 9 recites a "method for performing contextual searches on an Internet Phone (IP) phone." Id. at 1333. In relevant part, the method of claim 9 as allowed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recites steps of receiving search criteria from a user, submitting those criteria to a server, and receiving a list of merchants matching the search criteria from the server, "wherein said user completes a transaction with at least one of said merchants listed without the need to generate a voice call." Id. Issued claim 9, however...
