MacMillan, Sobanski & Todd participated in a case that had a favorable outcome for our client Hayes Lemmerz International.  On February 10, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("the CAFC") affirmed a district court's decision that Hayes's Struktur Wheel does not infringe two patents assigned to Kuhl Wheels, LLC.  Kuhl is the assignee of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,042,194 ("the '194 patent") and 6,520,596 ("the '596 patent").  The '194 patent is directed to steel wheels having a plurality of spoke arrangements, each of which includes at least two elongated spokes connected at their inner ends by a cross-bar that is designed to bolt to the connecting end of the axle of a vehicle.  Kuhl appealed the district court's claim construction of "spokes" as "rods or braces that carry forces between the rim and the hub," which "need not extend from the hub to the rim" but "must be spaced apart by a radially extending opening."  The CAFC decided that the intrinsic evidence, including the language of the claims and the specification, as well as the figures of the '194 patent, fully supports this construction.  Further, the CAFC noted that under the district court's claim construction of "spokes,", there is no factual dispute that Hayes's Struktur Wheel does not infringe the '194 patent.  The '596 patent is directed to hubs for steel wheels and wheels incorporating the hubs.  The CAFC also decided that the district court correctly construed the disputed claim terms of the '596 patent, resulting in a decision that Hayes's wheel does not infringe this patent.  The full CAFC decision is available at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/08-1158.pdf.