By Dennis Crouch
FuzzySharp Tech. Inc. v. 3DLabs Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2011)
In a per curiam opinion marked nonprecedential, the Federal Circuit has vacated and remanded the subject matter invalidity finding of a N.D. California District Court and instead ordered the court to rework its decision in light of Bilski v. Kappos, 130 S. Ct. 3218 (2010) and subsequent Federal Circuit decisions on point. As discussed below, FuzzySharp’s invention relates to compression software for computer graphics. U.S. Patent Nos. 6,172,679 and 6,618,047. The main idea of the invention is to avoid calculations associated with always hidden surfaces. Although the specification explains that its implementation uses “fuzzy” math to calculate always hidden surfaces. However, “fuzzy” limitations are not found in the asserted patent claims. The application was filed in 1997, but claims priority to a 1991 Australian patent application.
FuzzySharp’s appeal was filed after the district court determined that the claimed method failed to pass the machine-or-transformation and therefore, under the prevailing law at the time, the method did not constitute patentable subject matter. In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943 (2008). In its 2010 Bislki decision, the Supreme Court rejected the notion that the machine-or-transformation test could serve as the exclusive test of the patentable subject matter of a newly invented process. In the new rubric, the machine-or-transformation test offers only an important clue.
In its opinion, the Federal Circuit largely agreed with the lower court’s conclusion that the FuzzySharp claims fail the machine-or-transformation test, but, following the new Bilski rubric, remanded for a determination on the ultimate question of patentable subject matter.
Meaningful Limitations: FuzzySharp’s asserted claims involve two elements that are potentially linked to a machine – computation and computer storage. However, the appellate panel found those elements lacked “meaningful limits” on claim scope in the same way that the recitation of a general-purpose-computer is not a meaningful limitation of a software process that will only be performed on a computer. (Citing Gottshalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 64 (1972)).
Claim Construction: An important and arising issue is the interplay between claim construction and patentable subject matter. Under Federal Circuit precedent, claim construction appears to be a necessary precursor. However, the Supreme Court has regularly ignored details of claim language in making its determinations – focusing instead on what it saw as the invention.
Here, the court held that some claim construction is necessary: “[W]e conclude that … the patent eligibility of at least one of the asserted claims turns on questions of claim construction that the district court did not have the opportunity to address.” It will be interesting to watch how the parties argue on remand for claim construction results that favor their hoped-for subject matter eligibility outcome.
Notes:
- The per curiam panel included Judges Bryson, O’Malley, and Reyna.
- The U.S. application was prosecuted by Carl Oppedahl’s Colorado-based firm.
- The patentee is represented by Matthew McAndrews from the Niro firm on appeal; Jonathan Baker from Skadden Arps is handling the appellate defense.
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Here is Claim 12 of the ‘047 patent that the Federal Circuit analyzed:
12. A method of reducing a step of visibility computations in 3-D computer graphics from a perspective of a viewpoint, the method comprising:
computing, before said step and from said perspective, the visibility of at least one entity selected from 3-D surfaces and sub-elements of said 3-D surfaces, wherein said computing step comprises:
employing at least one projection plane for generating projections with said selected set of 3-D surfaces and said sub-elements with respect to said perspective;
identifying regions on said at least one projection plane, wherein said regions are related to the projections associated with said selected 3-D surfaces, said sub-elements, or bounding volumes of said 3-D surfaces or said sub-elements;
updating data related to said regions in computer storage; and
deriving the visibility of at least one of said 3-D surfaces or said sub-elements from the stored data in said computer storage; and
skipping, at said step of visibility computations, at least an occlusion relationship calculation for at least one entity that has been determined to be invisible in said computing step.