I think Judge Linn deserves a special shout out: Thank you, Judge Linn!

Not because his dissent in In re Nuijten has the better of the argument on how to construe section 101 and, thus, on whether the signal claim in the case is patentable (although, after one read through, I think he does have the better of the argument) … but, rather, because his is, I think, the first published court decision (at least, so far as I can verify with Westlaw) that cites to a book on Google Books and gives the url.

On page 7 of his dissent, he states:

One example of a contemporary dictionary is Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language (3d ed. 1768), available at http://books.google.com?id=bXsCAAAAQAAJ, which defines manufacture as “[a]ny thing made by art.”

Why am I struck by this?  Because it shows a delightfully high level of reader-friendliness and transparency in judicial writing.

For example, I can go to that book at Google Books, pull up the pertinent page of Johnson’s Dictionary, and see that Johnson actually defined the word “manufacture” in two different ways — one which Judge Linn quotes, and the other which states, “The practice of making any piece of workmanship.”

In a similarly transparent way, eight pages later (on p. 15), Judge Linn cites to a particular statement by counsel at oral argument and refers to the publicly available web-based mp3 file of the oral argument … with a time pinpoint citation.  (As to this helpful citation, he’s not the first. That honor goes to Senior Judge Clevenger … for his unpublished opinion in Franklin Elec. Co. v. Dover Corp., No. 06-1442, 2007 WL 634430 (Fed. Cir. March 1, 2007)).