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A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday reversed a Rhode Island district court's decision to dismiss patent infringement claims from Tomy Co., a Japanese toy-making giant, against Summer Infant, a subsidiary of Kids2. The dispute centers on a patent for a toddler toy tub with a built-in seating surface.

The Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 that U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence had incorrectly defined the terms related to the seating surfaces covered by the Tomy patent. The court’s majority opinion, authored by U.S. Circuit Judge Leonard Stark, found that the Rhode Island court's interpretation of the patent’s claims was overly narrow, particularly with regard to how the seating surfaces were linked to the tub’s other components.

Tomy, which owns the patent in question, had filed a counterclaim alleging that Summer Infant's "Comfy Clean Deluxe Newborn to Toddler Tub" infringed on its intellectual property. Summer Infant had initially filed a declaratory judgment action in Rhode Island federal court, seeking a ruling that its tub did not infringe Tomy’s patent.

Judge Stark's opinion criticized the district court's claim construction, which he argued excluded an embodiment from Figure 13 of the patent’s specification. He stressed that such a construction was inconsistent with the principle of avoiding interpretations that exclude disclosed embodiments.

In dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Chen disagreed with the majority’s reasoning. Judge Chen argued that regardless of how the claim limitation was construed, Tomy's infringement allegations were flawed and that the district court had correctly construed the claim.

The patent in question is U.S. Patent No. 6,578,209, which covers the design of a toddler bath tub with an integrated seating surface.

Representatives for the parties involved did not immediately comment on the ruling.

The case, Kids2 LLC v. Tomy International Inc., case number 23-1524, was heard by U.S. Circuit Judges Raymond Chen, Tiffany Cunningham, and Leonard Stark.