ABSTRACT
The courts have also developed a doctrine of prosecution history estoppel, which is somewhat the converse of the doctrine of equivalents. In accordance with the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel, if to obtain the patent, the patentee was forced to amend the language of his claims in order to avoid prior art and thus to obtain his patent, he may be estopped to place a broader interpretation of his claim than that set forth by the amended language.
