Acceleration Bay, LLC v. Amazon Web Services, Inc.

District Court, D. Delaware·Decided October 19, 2023·No. 1:22-cv-00904·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE

ACCELERATION BAY, LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Corporation, Plaintiff, Civil Action No. 22-904-RGA V. AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INC., a Delaware Corporation, Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION Jonathan A. Choa, Philip A. Rovner, POTTER ANDERSON & CORROON LLP, Wilmington, DE; Paul J. Andre, Christina M. Finn, James R. Hannah (argued), Kristopher B. Kastens, Lisa Kobialka, Michael H. Lee, KRAMER LEVIN NAFTALIS & FRANKEL LLP, Redwood Shores, CA; Marcus Colucci, Aaron M. Frankel (argued), KRAMER LEVIN NAFTALIS & FRANKEL LLP, New York, NY, Attorneys for Plaintiff. Jack B. Blumenfeld, Jennifer Ying, MORRIS NICHOLS ARSHT & TUNNELL LLP, Wilmington, DE; Alan M. Fisch, Andrew Ramos (argued), Lisa Phillips, Jeffrey M. Saltman, R. William Sigler, FISCH SIGLER LLP, Washington, DC, Attorneys for Defendant.

October | | _, 2023

debug oie. JUDGE: Before me is the issue of claim construction of multiple terms in U.S. Patent Nos. 6,701,344 (“the °344 patent”), 6,714,966 (“the °966 patent”), 6,732,147 (“the ’147 patent”), 6,829,634 (“the °634 patent”), and 6,910,069 (“the ’069 patent”). The parties submitted a Joint Claim Construction Brief (D.I. 65) and Appendix (D.I. 66). Defendant submitted an additional letter. (D.I. 72). I heard oral argument on October 4, 2023.! I. BACKGROUND On July 6, 2022, Plaintiff Acceleration Bay filed a complaint against Defendant Amazon Web Services, alleging infringement of the 344, 966, °147, °634, and ’069 patents. (D-I. 1). These patents disclose networking technologies that promote reliable, efficient broadcast of data through large networks. (D.I. 65 at 6-7). The °344 patent discloses “systems for an effective broadcast technique using a regular network.” (D.I. 1 410). The ’966 patent discloses “systems for providing an information delivery service using a regular network.” (/d. § 14). The ’147 patent discloses “methods and systems for leaving a broadcast channel.” (/d. § 18). The 634 patent discloses “methods and systems for broadcasting data across a regular network.” (Ud. 22). The °069 patent discloses “methods for adding a participant to a network without placing a high overhead on the underlying network.” (/d. § 25). Il. LEGAL STANDARD “It is a bedrock principle of patent law that the claims of a patent define the invention to which the patentee is entitled the right to exclude.” Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc) (cleaned up). ““[T]here is no magic formula or catechism for

' Citations to the transcript of the argument, which is not yet docketed, are in the format “Markman Tr. at.”

conducting claim construction.’ Instead, the court is free to attach the appropriate weight to appropriate sources ‘in light of the statutes and policies that inform patent law.’” SoftView LLC v. Apple Inc., 2013 WL 4758195, at *1 (D. Del. Sept. 4, 2013) (alteration in original) (quoting Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1324). When construing patent claims, a court considers the literal language of the claim, the patent specification, and the prosecution history. Markman vy. Westview Instruments, Inc., 52 F.3d 967, 977-80 (Fed. Cir. 1995) (en banc), aff'd, 517 U.S. 370 (1996). Of these sources, “the specification is always highly relevant to the claim construction analysis. Usually, it is dispositive; it is the single best guide to the meaning of a disputed term.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1315 (cleaned up). “While claim terms are understood in light of the specification, a claim construction must not import limitations from the specification into the claims.” Deere & Co. v. Bush Hog, LLC, 703 F.3d 1349, 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (citing Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1323). “(T]he words of a claim ‘are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning.’ .. . [It is] the meaning that the term would have to a person of ordinary skill in the art in question at the time of the invention, 1.e., as of the effective filing date of the patent application.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1312-13 (citations omitted). “[T]he ‘ordinary meaning’ of a claim term is its meaning to [an] ordinary artisan after reading the entire patent.” /d. at 1321. “In some cases, the ordinary meaning of claim language as understood by a person of skill in the art may be readily apparent even to lay judges, and claim construction in such cases involves little more than the application of the widely accepted meaning of commonly understood words.” Jd. at 1314. When a court relies solely on the intrinsic evidence—the patent claims, the specification, and the prosecution history—the court’s construction is a determination of law. See Teva Pharms. USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., 574 U.S. 318, 331 (2015). The court may also make factual

findings based on consideration of extrinsic evidence, which “consists of all evidence external to the patent and prosecution history, including expert and inventor testimony, dictionaries, and learned treatises.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1317—19 (quoting Markman, 52 F.3d at 980). Extrinsic evidence may assist the court in understanding the underlying technology, the meaning of terms to one skilled in the art, and how the invention works. /d. Extrinsic evidence, however, is less reliable and less useful in claim construction than the patent and its prosecution history. Jd. Il. CONSTRUCTION OF AGREED-UPON TERMS I adopt the following agreed-upon constructions (D.I. 65 at 2-5): Claim Term “A distributed game system °344 patent, claims 13, 21 These preambles are limiting compnising:”; 966 patent, claim 1 “A computer network for providing a game °634 patent, claims 10, 25 environment for a plurality of gaming participants, each °147 patent, claim 6 gaming participant having connections to at least three °069 patent, claim 1 neighbor gaming participants,” / “A computer network for providing an information delivery service for a plurality of participants, each participant having connections to at least three neighbor participants,”; “A non-routing table based broadcast channel for participants, comprising” / “A non-routing table based computer network having a plurality of participants, each participant being an application program, and each participant having connections to at least three neighbor participants,”;

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Acceleration Bay, LLC v. Amazon Web Services, Inc., (D. Del. 2023).

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