Technology Patents LLC. v. T-Mobile (UK) Ltd.

By Jason Rantanen

Technology Patents LLC. v. T-Mobile (UK) Ltd. (Fed. Cir. 2012) Download 11-1581
Panel: Bryson (author), Prost, Reyna

This case involves a suit brought by prolific inventor Aris Mardirossian's company Technology Patents LLC against more than 100 domestic and foreign defendants that TPL accused of infringing US Reissue Patent No. RE39870.  While the primary subjects addressed by the court are those of claim construction and infringement , there are several additional noteworthy issues discussed at the end of the post.

The '870 patent relates to a global paging system.  According to the patent, the prior art was deficient because "it did not fulfill the need for a cheap and efficient global paging system that allows users who expect to receive messages or pages abroad to 'remotely input country designations in which they are to be paged.'"  Slip Op. at 13, quoting '870 patent.  The '870 patent sought to cure the deficiencies of the prior art: "The ’870 Patent solved this problem by claiming a system which allows for paging of the receiving user (“RU”) in countries where the RU “may be located,” as per a list input by the RU." Id., quoting district court.  Claim 4, the primary claim addressed on appeal, recites  (claim terms at issue in the appeal are in bold):

4. A system for paging a receiving user in a country-selective paging system, comprising:

a paging system spanning a plurality of different countries of the world, the paging system including a plurality of servers, and wireless transmitters in different countries for transmitting paging messages to receiving users;

interconnecting servers so as to permit digital communication of signals between the plurality of servers via at least the packet-switched digital data network;

a first website or server located in a first country for allowing an originating user to page the receiving user who may be located in a second country different from the first country, the originating user not necessarily knowing what country the receiving user is located in;

wherein the paging system determines if the second country is currently designated by the receiving user as a designated country in which the paging system is to attempt to page the receiving user;

when the paging system determines that the second country has been designated by the receiving user, means for sending a paging communication via at least the packet-switched digital data network to a second website or server, the second website or server being in communication with a wireless transmitter located in the second country, and wherein the paging communication causes the second website or server to initiate paging the receiving user via the wireless transmitter in the second country; and

when the paging system determines that the second country has not been designated by the receiving user, the paging system initiates paging operations in another country in a predetermined order in an attempt to page the receiving user.

The over 100 companies companies that TPL sued roughly fell into three categories: (1) domestic carriers and handset companies, (2) software providers, and (3) foreign carriers.  Following claim construction, the district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement to the domestic carriers.  On appeal, TPL challenged the district court's claim construction and noninfringement rulings. 

Claim Construction: Much of the claim construction dispute revolved around the meaning of "receiving user."  The district court construed this term to mean a "person or party," while TPL contended that it means "the combination of the person and the handset."

Applying what has often been described as a holistic approach to claim construction, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's construction.  In other words, the court applied a flexible, relatively unstructured approach to construing the claim terms as opposed to a rigid rules-based approach.  In this particular case, that meant looking closely at the intrinsic evidence.  "The text of the patent makes clear that the term “receiving user” does not refer to a person-pager combination."  Slip Op. at 19. The court applied a similar approach to the two remaining claim terms.

Holistic Infringement Analysis: TPL also argued that, even if the CAFC affirmed the district court's claim constructions, it nevertheless erred in its grant of summary judgment of noninfringement.  On this point, too, the Federal Circuit affirmed.  While much of the CAFC's conclusion was based on the "receiving user" limitation, the court's overall approach bore many similarities to its holistic claim construction: the court made frequent reference back to the specification even as it assessed the question of infringement, rather than rigidly applying its claim construction. 

For example, in responding to TPL's argument that because the accused systems permitted users to select the carrier when traveling abroad, some of which contained country information (see below figure), the court pointed out that "The specification and the claims make clear that the invention is concerned with the country in which the receiving user is located, not with the receiving user’s carrier." Slip Op. at 29.  This carried through to the assessment of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, as the court concluded that "the distinction betwen selecting a carrier and selecting a country is not insignificant in the context of the patent….That is a fundamental difference between the accused systems and the claimed invention that goes to the heart of the claimed invention."  Slip Op. at 34.  Figure 1

 

Additional notes:

  • This lawsuit was filed in 2007 – well before the September 16, 2011 enactment of the America Invents Act, which substantially altered the rules for joining multiple unrelated defendants within a single infringement lawsuit. 
  • The district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement to the software providers as well, in part on the ground that it concluded that certain claims required mutiple actors and TPL failed to show that the defendants have discretion or control over the end users.  The Federal Circuit concluded that it was unnecessary to consider the recent en banc decision in Akamai Technologies v. Limelight addressing divided infringement because the claimed software system could be "used" by a single actor even if the user did not have physical control over all elements of a system. Slip Op. at 36 (citing Centillion Data Sys. v. Qwest Communications, 631 F.3d 1279, 1284 (Fed. Cir. 2011).
  • The district court found that it lacked jurisdiction over the foreign carriers.  On appeal, the Federal Circuit did not address the jurisdictional question, instead concluding that "Our ruling sustaining the district court’s decision in favor of the domestic carriers thus dooms TPL’s claim of infringement against the foreign carriers as well. For that reason, it is unnecessary for us to decide whether the district court was correct in dismissing the case against the foreign carriers for lack of personal jurisdiction."  Slip Op. at 39.

9 thoughts on “Technology Patents LLC. v. T-Mobile (UK) Ltd.

  1. 9

    You might want to read NTP v. RIM, David. In that case, critical components of the system were in Canada, but the court found “beneficial use” of the system in the U.S. A $400M judgment, as I recall, followed by a $600M+ settlement once the judgment was affirmed and an injunction was imminent.

  2. 8

    > A system for paging a receiving user in a country-selective paging system, comprising:
    >
    > a paging system spanning a plurality of different countries of the world, the paging system including a plurality of servers,

    We can stop right there: this patent is irrelevant and effectively worthless. Even if it were issued, what type of infringement is possible, when at least a portion of the system exists outside of the country and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the patent? Isn’t it axiomatic that a U.S. patent cannot claim patent infringement that requires some acts to be performed in a foreign nation?

    (It may be true that one of the new unitary patents granted in the EU may enable the enforcement of a multinational patent, so long as every one of the servers is deployed in an EU nation. But this is a U.S. case.)

  3. 7

    According to the leak, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 for T-Mobile could launch at a whopping $300, with the L9 coming in at just under a buck. With Walmart being the “low price leader,” we can only pray the price tag wont go up when sold directly

  4. 4

    Technology Patents LLC

    Too funny.

    And this:

    The ‘870 patent relates to a global paging system. According to the patent, the prior art was deficient because “it did not fulfill the need for a cheap and efficient global paging system that allows users who expect to receive messages or pages abroad to ‘remotely input country designations in which they are to be paged.'”

    is just weird. What was the the solution presented by the inventor here that “allowed” users to input country designations in which they are to paged in a “cheap and efficient manner”? Using the Internet?

  5. 3

    Rantanen, yet it is present, even in Phillips.  Recall there that the "baffle" had multiple disclosed uses and that the claim construction would not be narrowed to one or even all of them.  But the caveat there implied that if there was only one use disclosed, a claim construction of baffle that would find as an infringement something that did not perform the function of a baffle as described in the specification would not be an infringement.

  6. 2

    I revised that sentence so as to not overstate the point. I think there is a “heart of the invention” theme that arguably runs through the holistic infringement approach used by the court here, but it is not so clear cut as the original wording of that sentence implied.

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