- Stats LLC v. Hockeyline, Inc.All claims unpatentablePTAB · Sep 15, 2015 · IPR2014-00510 · APJ Brian P Murphy · IPR · Final written decision
Claims 1, 2, 8, 10–12, and 30 were held unpatentable as anticipated by Hameen-Anttila and STATS Football, and obvious over STATS Football combined with Reilly.
RulingsFinal written decision- Claim Construction › Functional claiming / §112(f) means-plus-function › Whether §112(f) applies (Williamson, nonce words)§112(f) appliesDecided for petitioner
“1. Means-plus-function Claiming Independent claim 1 of the ’107 patent includes a series of means-plus- function limitations. 35 U.S.C. § 112 ¶ 6.5 A means-plus-function limitation “shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.” Id. The claim limitations in the ’107 patent are drafted using the accepted “means for” construct followed by a specified function, without further recitation of structure to achieve the recited function. Triton Tech of Texas, LLC v. Nintendo of Am., Inc., 753 F.3d 1375, 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2014); see Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC, 792 F.3d 1339, 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (en banc). “In exchange for using this form of claiming, the patent specification must disclose with sufficient particularity the corresponding structure for performing the claimed function and clearly link that structure to the function.” Triton Tech, 753 F.3d at 1378 (citation omitted). We construe the following claim limitations for purposes of this decision, in accordance with the principles stated above. 2. “display means coupled to said processor for facilitating the entry of such data by a user” The ’107 patent specification links a touch display screen, computer screen, or other electronic screen with the claimed function of “facilitating the entry of 5 Section 4(c) of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Pub. L. No. 112-29, 125 Stat. 284 (2011) (“AIA”), re-designated 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, as 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Because the ’107 patent has a filing date before September 16, 2012, the effective date of section 4(c) of the AIA, we refer to the pre-AIA version of § 112, ¶ 6. such data by a user.” Ex. 1001, 2:62–67 (“In the case of a touch display screen, the screen may function both as a display means and an input means. In the case of a keyboard or mouse, the operation thereof would normally be carried out in conjunction with display means 108, and/or a computer screen or other electronic screen.”); Pet. 11. During a game, the electronic screen display prompts the device user (game scorer) to enter sports game event data related to the progress of the game. Id. at 3:7–12. The data being entered, “such data” in the claim language under consideration, has antecedent basis in the “input means . . . for inputting data related to events of said sports game in real time.” Accordingly, we conclude that the broadest reasonable interpretation of the limitation “display means coupled to said processor for facilitating the entry of such data by a user,” consistent with the ’107 patent specification, is “a touch screen, computer screen, or other electronic screen coupled to the processor for facilitating the entry of data related to events of a sports game by a user in real time, and equivalents thereof.”” slip op. at 6
- Claim Construction › Threshold & procedure › Whether a term needs construction (O2 Micro)Term construed board ownDecided for petitioner
“2. “display means coupled to said processor for facilitating the entry of such data by a user” The ’107 patent specification links a touch display screen, computer screen, or other electronic screen with the claimed function of “facilitating the entry of 5 Section 4(c) of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Pub. L. No. 112-29, 125 Stat. 284 (2011) (“AIA”), re-designated 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, as 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Because the ’107 patent has a filing date before September 16, 2012, the effective date of section 4(c) of the AIA, we refer to the pre-AIA version of § 112, ¶ 6. such data by a user.” Ex. 1001, 2:62–67 (“In the case of a touch display screen, the screen may function both as a display means and an input means. In the case of a keyboard or mouse, the operation thereof would normally be carried out in conjunction with display means 108, and/or a computer screen or other electronic screen.”); Pet. 11. During a game, the electronic screen display prompts the device user (game scorer) to enter sports game event data related to the progress of the game. Id. at 3:7–12. The data being entered, “such data” in the claim language under consideration, has antecedent basis in the “input means . . . for inputting data related to events of said sports game in real time.” Accordingly, we conclude that the broadest reasonable interpretation of the limitation “display means coupled to said processor for facilitating the entry of such data by a user,” consistent with the ’107 patent specification, is “a touch screen, computer screen, or other electronic screen coupled to the processor for facilitating the entry of data related to events of a sports game by a user in real time, and equivalents thereof.”” slip op. at 6
- Claim Construction › Intrinsic evidence (Phillips canons) › Plain and ordinary meaning to a POSITATerm construed board ownDecided for petitioner
- Novelty / Anticipation (§102) › Anticipation standard (single reference, every element)UnpatentableUnpatentable
“c. Claim 1 – “customized by the user to reflect desired data” We are further persuaded that Hameen-Anttila discloses hierarchical menu- based screen displays that may be “customized by the user to reflect desired data,” in accordance with our claim construction. We agree with Petitioner, that the setup menu in Hameen-Anttila (Fig. 4a) allows a user to select desired display menus (e.g., for golf) that will cause other menus not to be displayed (e.g., for hockey, bowling, and baseball) during a user’s input of golf-specific data in real time. Pet. Reply 7–8 (citing Ex. 1002, 5:21–24; Ex. 1014 (Dahbura Dec.) ¶¶ 20–21). As Dr. Dahbura notes, Patent Owner’s expert, Dr. Locke, agrees that choosing not to display a menu screen is a form of user customization. Ex. 1014 ¶ 21 (citing Ex. 1017, 72:19–73:3). We further agree with Petitioner that Patent Owner’s proffered distinction between Hameen-Anttila’s “mere usage” of hierarchical menu-based screen displays and “customizing” such displays is illusory and not consistent with the description of user customization in the ’107 patent. Pet. Reply 8 (citing Ex. 1014 ¶ 22). The individual drop-down arrows in Figure 4b further suggest the ability of a user to change the menu-based screen displays to permit the user to input desired data for the illustrated golf game. Therefore, we determine Hameen- Anttila discloses an action by the user to configure the hierarchical menu-based screen displays to permit desired data to be gathered for one or more sports games. d. Claim 1 – “transferring statistical information based on such inputted data” Patent Owner’s argument asserting Hameen-Anttila does not disclose the transfer of “statistical information based on such inputted data” also is off the mark. As noted above, Hameen-Anttila discloses that sports game event data is input into an electronic scorekeeping device and transmitted via a communications network to a server while the sports game is ongoing. Ex. 1002, 2:40-51, 2:57– 3:13. We are not persuaded by Patent Owner’s argument that the transfer of statistical information “based on” inputted data requires some form of calculation that necessarily excludes inputted data as part of the transferred “statistical information.” PO Resp. 17–19. Patent Owner does not offer a claim construction or request construction of quoted claim phrase at issue, even though Patent Owner’s argument presumes a specific definition of the phrase without explaining why it is consistent with the broadest reasonable interpretation standard. Pet. Reply 2. The language in claim 1 of the ’107 patent recites “a processor,” but it does not recite a calculation function performed by the processor on inputted data. Pet. Reply 11. The claim language also does not exclude inputted data from “statistical information” or limit “statistical information based on such inputted data” only to statistics calculated from the inputted data. Id. The preamble of claim 1, recites “gathering, processing and distributing statistical information.” Ex. 1001, 8:11–12 (emphasis added); see also PO Resp. 19 (citing Ex. 1001, 1:56–60 (“The present invention advantageously provides an electronic scorekeeping device for gathering, calculating and distributing statistical information.”)). Gathering statistical information, when read in light of the ’107 patent specification, refers to inputting sports game event data into the scorekeeping device for transmission to a central database as part of the statistical information transfer. Pet. Reply 11 (citing Ex. 1001, Abstract (“This [inputted] data is transferred in real-time in a system according to the invention via a communications means to a central database.”); Ex. 1014 ¶¶ 25–28). The ’107 patent does not define “statistical information” or “statistical information based on such inputted data.” The ’107 patent also does not exclude inputted data from the description of statistical information. Pet. Reply 12 (citing Ex. 1014 ¶ 27). To the contrary, and consistent with the understanding in the art, the ’107 patent uses the words “data,” “statistics,” “statistical data,” and “statistical information” interchangeably and with significant areas of overlap. Id.; see also id. at 4 (citing Ex. 2002 ¶ 30 (“The terms ‘statistics,’ ‘data,’ and ‘statistical information,’ are widely used in computer systems, but they are often used in very general ways with broad meanings in which their meanings have significant areas of overlap.”)). We further credit Dr. Dahbura’s testimony, that a person of ordinary skill in” slip op. at 18
Patent outcomesUS 6,725,107 unpatentableClaim construction§ 102 anticipation§ 103 obviousnesscites KSRPatents in suitUS 6,725,107 - TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. / TD Ameritrade, Inc. et al. v. Trading Technologies International, Inc.Rehearing deniedPTAB · Feb 2, 2015 · CBM2014-00135 · APJ Philip J Hoffmann · CBM · Rehearing
The Board denied both rehearing requests, leaving intact institution of CBM review of claims 1–56 under § 101 and denial of institution under §§ 102, 103, and 112.
RulingsRehearing decision- RehearingRehearing, deniedDenied
“decision for an abuse of discretion. See 37 C.F.R. § 42.71(c). An abuse of discretion may be determined if a decision is based on an erroneous interpretation of law, if a factual finding is not supported by substantial evidence, or if the decision represents an unreasonable judgment in weighing relevant factors. See Arnold Partnership v. Dudas, 362 F.3d 1338, 1340 (Fed. Cir. 2004). For the reasons that follow, Petitioner does not show that the Board abused its discretion.” slip op. at 2
- Obviousness (§103) › Motivation to combine / reasonable expectation of successNot reached
“characterizing Togher’s disclosure, for the following reasons we find that Petitioner relied on Silverman and Gutterman to render obvious claim 1’s limitation “selecting a particular area in the order entry region [corresponding to a price of a static display of prices] through single action of the user input device . . . to set a plurality of parameters for the trade order and send the trade order to the electronic exchange.” Thus, Petitioner’s argument that Togher discloses “selecting a particular area in the order entry region [corresponding to a price of a static display of prices] through single action of the user input device . . . to set a plurality of additional parameters for the trade order and send the trade order to the electronic exchange” is not timely raised, and will not be a basis for instituting covered business method patent review.” slip op. at 3
- BurdenDecided for patent owner
“displaying market information, setting trade order parameters, and sending a trade order to an electronic exchange. As further explained, the only hardware recited in claim 1 is a display and an input device, which both were known technology. Dec. 11–12. Further recitations in claim 1 are directed to use and operation of the GUI – for example, displaying market information in a certain arrangement on the GUI, as well as setting order parameters and sending the order to the exchange with the GUI. Id. Thus, inasmuch as claim 1 recites only known hardware, Patent Owner does not persuade us that claim 1 recites a novel GUI tool.” slip op. at 7
§ 103 obviousnessPatents in suitUS 6,772,132 - TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. / TD Ameritrade, Inc. et al. v. Trading Technologies International, Inc.Rehearing deniedPTAB · Feb 2, 2015 · CBM2014-00133 · APJ Philip J Hoffmann · CBM · Rehearing
The Board denied both rehearing requests, leaving in place institution on claims 1–28 under § 101 and denial of institution under § 103.
RulingsRehearing decision- RehearingRehearing, deniedDenied
“decision for an abuse of discretion. See 37 C.F.R. § 42.71(c). An abuse of discretion may be determined if a decision is based on an erroneous interpretation of law, if a factual finding is not supported by substantial evidence, or if the decision represents an unreasonable judgment in weighing relevant factors. See Arnold Partnership v. Dudas, 362 F.3d 1338, 1340 (Fed. Cir. 2004). For the reasons that follow, Petitioner does not show that the Board abused its discretion.” slip op. at 2
- PTAB / AIA Trials › Institution threshold (reasonable likelihood / more likely than not)InstitutedInstituted
“Ameritrade Online Holdings Corp. (collectively, “Petitioner”) filed a Petition (Paper 1, “Pet.”) on May 19, 2014, which requested review under the transitional program for covered business method patents of U.S. Patent No. 7,676,411 B2 (Ex. 1001, “the ’411 patent”). Trading Technologies International, Inc. (“Patent Owner”) filed a Preliminary Response (Paper 18, “Prelim. Resp.”) on September 3, 2014. The Board instituted covered business method patent review of claims 1–28 of the ’411 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 101, and denied institution of any claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103. Paper 19 (“Decision”). Petitioner and Patent Owner each filed a Request for Rehearing asking that the Board reconsider its Decision – Petitioner requesting that we institute based on grounds 2 and 3 of the Petition because claims 1–28 are obvious based on Silverman, Gutterman, and Togher with or without Paal (Paper 21, “Petitioner’s Req. Reh’g”), and Patent Owner requesting that we deny institution because the ’411 patent does not qualify for covered business method patent review (Paper 22, “Patent Owner’s Req. Reh’g”).” slip op. at 2
- Obviousness (§103) › Motivation to combine / reasonable expectation of successNot reached
“characterizing Togher’s disclosure, for the following reasons we find that Petitioner relied on Silverman and Gutterman to render obvious claim 1’s limitation “selecting a particular graphical area in the order entry region through a single action of the user input device to . . . set a price for the trade order and send the trade order . . . to the electronic exchange,” and relied on Togher to disclose the claim limitation “the trade order having a default quantity.” Thus, Petitioner’s argument that Togher discloses “a single action of the user input device [] both set[ting] a price for the trade order and send[ing] the trade order having a default quantity” is not timely raised, and will not be a basis for instituting covered business method patent review.” slip op. at 3
- BurdenDecided for patent owner
“information in a certain arrangement on the GUI, as well as setting order parameters and sending the order to the exchange with the GUI. Id. Thus, inasmuch as claim 1 recites only known hardware, Patent Owner does not persuade us that claim 1 recites a novel GUI tool.” slip op. at 7
§ 103 obviousnessDiscretionary denialPatents in suitUS 7,676,411 - PTAB · Sep 10, 2014 · IPR2014-00336 · APJ Scott E Kamholz · IPR · Order
The Board granted the parties’ joint motion and terminated IPR2014-00336 as to all parties; it did not decide patentability.
RulingsOther- PTAB / AIA Trials › Other PTAB motions (exclude, strike, seal, additional discovery, rehearing)Granted
“The parties filed a joint motion to terminate the instant proceeding (Paper 13 (“Mot.”)), and a true copy of their written settlement agreement (Ex. 1005) made in connection with the termination, in accordance with 35 U.S.C. § 317 and 37 C.F.R. § 42.74(b). The parties also jointly requested that their settlement agreement be treated as business confidential information under 35 U.S.C. § 317(b) and 37 C.F.R. § 42.74(c). Mot. 2-3. For the reasons provided below, the joint motion to terminate is granted. The joint request that the settlement agreement be treated as business confidential information is also granted.” slip op. at 2
NonePatents in suitUS 8,622,984
Holdings, summaries, rulings, issues, outcomes, winners and claim constructions shown for a decision were generated by a large language model reading the opinion. They are a guide to the decision, not the decision. Confirm every one against the court's own text before relying on it. Outcomes read from the patent owner’s side. Party names are extracted from the decision and are missing on about 900 short Director denials and scans, which carry the trial number instead.