Justia Patents Opinion Summaries

Arlington manufactured and sold electrical connectors that could be snapped into place, including the Snap2It® brand connectors. Bridgeport sold a competing line of quick-connect fittings called Snap-In and Speed-Snap connectors. In 2002, Arlington filed suit, alleging that Bridgeport’s connectors infringed claim 1 of its 488 patent. Bridgeport signed a settlement agreement stating that the 488 patent was not invalid, was not unenforceable, and was infringed by Bridgeport’s 590-DCS and 590-DCSI Speed-Snap products. Bridgeport agreed to be “permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing . . . the Speed-Snap products identified … 590-DCS and 590-DCSI or any colorable imitations.” The district court dismissed without prejudice and maintained jurisdiction to enforce the injunction. In 2005, Bridgeport redesigned its connectors to have a frustoconical leading edge and began selling the 38ASP and 380SP connectors (New Connectors), under the Whipper-Snap® brand. In 2012, Arlington filed a motion for contempt, alleging that Bridgeport’s New Connectors violated the 2004 Injunction. The district court acknowledged that the dispute centered around two limitations of claim 1 of the 488 patent, and construed those limitations, finding that Bridgeport directly and indirectly infringed the patent. The Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the contempt order is not a final judgment or otherwise appealable. View "Arlington Indus., Inc. v. Bridgeport Fittings, Inc." on Justia Law

A Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system wireless cellular network has a base station and mobile stations, such as cellular telephones. To establish communication between a mobile station and a base, the mobile station transmits a known signal (preamble) over a random access channel (RACH). The CDMA system allows multiple signals to be sent over the same RACH by using different numerical spreading codes that enable the stations to distinguish a particular wireless communication from other concurrent communications. If too many mobile stations transmit simultaneously at high power levels, the signals can interfere with each other. GBT’s patents disclose an improvement that reduces the risk of interference: a mobile station seeking to communicate with the base will transmit preambles at increasing power levels until it receives an acknowledgment signal from the base. Once the mobile station receives that acknowledgment, it stops transmitting preambles and starts transmitting message information, so that each data signal is transmitted at the lowest power necessary to reach the base, reducing the risk of interference. In Texas litigation, the court construed preamble as “a signal used for communicating with the base station that is spread before transmission” and granted summary judgment of anticipation, which the Federal Circuit affirmed. While appeal was pending, GBT sought new claims during reexamination of one patent and in a pending continuation application and submitted the claim construction order from the Texas litigation and filings setting forth GBT’s stipulated definition of preamble. The claims GBT asserted, in this case, against Apple were added during the proceedings. The district court construed the disputed terms, including preamble, and granted Apple summary judgment of noninfringement. The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "Golden Bridge Tech., Inc. v. Apple Inc." on Justia Law

Medisim owns the 668 patent, which claims a device that is placed against the skin, takes temperature readings from sensors, determines time-dependent parameters of temperature change responsive to those readings, calculates a deep tissue temperature, and then calculates a core body temperature. Before filing that patent’s application, Medisim sold the FHT-1 thermometer, so that its own product qualified as prior art to the 668 patent under 35 U.S.C. 102(b). The FHT-1 thermometer uses a heatflux algorithm disclosed in another Medisim patent. From 2004 to 2007, BestMed marketed and sold Medisim’s thermometers in the U.S. under International Distribution Agreement (IDA). Best-Med was privy to technical information concerning Medisim thermometers and testing procedures, including its water bath testing protocol, which enabled Medisim’s thermometers to be FDA-approved for U.S. sales. In 2008, the parties entered into a “Purchase and Sale Agreement” (PSA), which governed their separation; it authorized the parties to offer competing products to current customers as long as delivery occurred after May 1, 2009. The parties released all claims based in past performance or disputes regarding the IDA. After the PSA expired, BestMed began selling competing thermometers. Medisim sued, accusing Best-Med of directly and indirectly infringing the 668 patent and of unjust enrichment. Entering judgment as a matter of law, the district court found the patent anticipated by Medisim’s own prior art FHT-1 thermometer. The Federal Circuit remanded.View "Medisim Ltd. v. Bestmed, LLC" on Justia Law

Digital image processing involves electronically capturing an image of a scene with a “source device,” such as a digital camera, altering the image in a desired fashion, and transferring the altered image to an “output device,” such as a color printer. According to the 414 patent, all imaging devices impose some level of distortion on color and spatial properties because different devices allow for slightly different ranges of colors and spatial information to be displayed or reproduced. Prior art attempted to correct distortions using device-dependent solutions that calibrate and modify the color and spatial properties of the devices and device independent solutions that translate an image’s pixel data from a device dependent format into an independent color space, which can then be translated to output devices at a reduced level of distortion. The patent expands the device independent paradigm to disclose an improved device profile that includes both chromatic characteristic information and spatial characteristic information. Digitech filed infringement suits against 32 defendants. The district court found that all of the asserted claims were subject matter ineligible and invalid under 35 U.S.C. 101: the device profile claims are directed to a collection of numerical data that lacks a physical component or physical manifestation and the asserted method claims for generating a device profile encompass the abstract idea of organizing data through mathematical correlations. The Federal Circuit affirmed.View "Digitech Image Techs., LLC v. Elecs. for Imaging, Inc." on Justia Law

H-W, the owner of the 955 patent, sued Overstock, alleging that Overstock’s smartphone application infringed claims 9 and 17 of the patent, relating to an apparatus and method for performing “contextual searches on an Internet Protocol (IP) Phone.” According to the specification of the 955 patent, “[a]n IP Phone is a telephone which can operate and execute voice communication in the same way as conventional telephones either via a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) or an IP network.” H-W filed suit in March 2012 and submitted infringement contentions in July. In October, Overstock notified H-W that claim 9, as issued, was missing a limitation. In late May 2013 H-W obtained a certificate of correction from the PTO and submitted it to the district court. The parties had completed summary judgment and claim construction briefing. A few months later, the district court construed the claims and granted summary judgment of invalidity, holding that the claims were indefinite. H-W appealed construction of “user of said phone” and “said user” in claim 17 to mean “a consumer operating the IP Phone” The Federal Circuit affirmed as modified, holding that that the district court correctly held claim 17 invalid but erred in holding corrected claim 9 invalid.View "H-W Tech., L.C. v. Overstock.com, Inc." on Justia Law

The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences declared an interference between Troy’s 451 patent, which claims priority to a provisional application filed in February 2005, and Samson’s 665 patent application, claiming priority to a provisional application filed in January 2005. Samson was named senior party. Troy’s priority motion alleged reduction to practice in early February 2004, conception prior to February 2004, inurement, and derivation. Samson’s motion alleged reduction to practice in late February or early March 2004 and conception in early February 2004. The Board concluded that Troy failed to prove actual reduction to practice in February 2004 and ordered all claims of the 451 patent cancelled. Troy had proffered new evidence of prior conception at the dates asserted, new evidence of actual reduction to practice in February 2004, and a claim that Samson engaged in “inequitable conduct” by including in its provisional application confidential drawings misappropriated from Troy. The district court affirmed, refusing to consider new evidence, not raised before the Board. The court acknowledged that Troy had proven, in state court, that Samson improperly submitted as its own at least one drawing of Troy’s and that Samson violated a confidentiality agreement in developing its inventions, but concluded that neither proved that Troy conceived all the elements and timely reduced them to practice. The Federal Circuit vacated. View "Troy v. Samson Mfg. Corp." on Justia Law

Stauffer, pro se, filed a qui tam action against Brooks Brothers under the then-version of the false-marking statute, 35 U.S.C. 292, claiming that Brooks Brothers marked its bow ties with expired patent numbers. In 2011, while the action was pending, the President signed into law the America Invents Act, 125 Stat. 284A, which eliminated the false-marking statute’s qui tam provision, so that only a “person who has suffered a competitive injury” may bring a claim. The AIA also expressly states that marking a product with an expired patent is not a false-marking violation and that the amendments apply to all pending cases. Stauffer argued that the AIA amendments were unconstitutional because they amounted to a pardon by Congress, violating the doctrine of separation of powers, and also violated the common-law principle that prohibits use of a pardon to vitiate a qui tam action once the action has commenced. The district court dismissed for lack of standing. The Federal Circuit affirmed, finding that the amendments did not constitute a pardon and that even if the law had not changed, Stauffer might have lost his lawsuit, and, therefore, could not have acquired a private-property interest in his share of the statutory penalty. View "Stauffer v. Brooks Brothers, Inc." on Justia Law

VA alleged infringement of the 413 patent. One defendant, Salesforce, filed a petition with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for post-grant review of all claims of that patent under the Covered Business Method Patents (CBM) program, of the America Invents Act, 125 Stat. 284. Salesforce argued that it had standing to bring the petition because it was sued for infringement and that the PTAB should institute CBM review because all the patent claims were more likely than not patent-ineligible under 35 U.S.C. 101 and invalid under 35 U.S.C. 102, 103 in view of prior art references. Defendants moved to stay district court proceedings. In August 2013, while the motion was pending, the court issued a discovery order and held a scheduling conference, setting an April 2014 date for a claim construction hearing and a November 2014 date for jury selection. In November 2013, the PTAB granted-in-part Salesforce’s petition, concluding that all claims of the 413 patent are directed to a covered business method, and are more likely than not patent-ineligible and invalid, and set a July 2014 date for a trial on the validity of the claims. In January 2014, the district court denied Defendants’ motion to stay the case pending CBM review. The Federal Circuit reversed. View "VirtualAgility Inc. v. Salesforce.com, Inc." on Justia Law

The International Trade Commission (ITC) determined that Intel did not violate 19 U.S.C. 1337 because Intel’s products were not covered by X2Y’s asserted patents. The patents disclose technology relating to structures for reducing electromagnetic interference in electrical circuits. The inventions use shielding electrodes to reduce the undesirable buildup of charge, known as “parasitic capacitance,” between electrodes used for conduction. In particular, the patents disclose alternating arrangements of shielded and shielding electrodes. The Federal Circuit affirmed. In light of clear disavowals, the claims at issue are limited to “a common conductive pathway electrode positioned between paired electromagnetically opposite conductors.” Because X2Y conceded noninfringement based on that construction, the court did not reach any other issues. View "X2Y Attenuators, LLC v. Int'l Trade Comm'n " on Justia Law

Retractable sued, alleging that Becton’s 1 mL and 3 mL IntegraTM syringes infringed claims of Retractable’s patents. Becton had commercially launched its 3 mL syringe in 2002 and the 1 mL syringe in 2003. At trial, Retractable argued that infringement began in 2000 and that a hypothetical negotiation then would have resulted in a lump sum payment of $72 million for a 10-year license. Becton countered with a lost profits theory that would limit recovery to about $5 million based on the sales of the syringes, or, alternatively, that a reasonable royalty would have been no more than $3 million.. The jury found that both syringes infringed and that reasonable royalty damages were $5,000,000. The district court entered judgment in Retractable’s favor and a permanent injunction against the continued sale of both syringes. Becton appealed the infringement and validity determinations but neither appealed nor requested a remand of the damages determination. The Federal Circuit concluded that the district court misconstrued one claim term and that the 3 mL syringe did not infringe; no remand was ordered. Becton requested the district court to modify the injunction and the damages award in light of the decision, citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(5). Retractable consented to modification of the injunction to exclude the 3 mL syringe. The district court concluded that the mandate rule precluded it from revisiting damages because the award was within the scope of the original judgment and was not raised in the prior appeal nor remanded. The Federal Circuit affirmed. View "Retractable Techs, Inc. v. Becton Dickinson & Co." on Justia Law