Limiting statements made during prosecution can have a pivotal impact on claim scope if a patent is subsequently litigated. Under the doctrine of prosecution disclaimer, a court may bar a patent owner from asserting that a claim covers a particular feature if a statement by the applicant during prosecution amounted to “a clear and unmistakable disavowal of claim scope”. Now, the Federal Circuit has held that changes between a provisional and nonprovisional application may be used to determine claim scope when no such explicit disavowal has been made—based not on the more rigorous prosecution disclaimer standard, but rather on the relatively less demanding approach used for claim construction in district court. That December 9 precedential decision affirmed, as a result, a judgment of noninfringement for Priceline against DDR Holdings LLC.