Bondyopadhyay v. United States

CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedFebruary 9, 2018
Docket14-147
StatusPublished

This text of Bondyopadhyay v. United States (Bondyopadhyay v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Bondyopadhyay v. United States, (uscfc 2018).

Opinion

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,< ***** d< * * ** * **** ****** rr f f * U.S. COURT OF {< FEDERAL CLAIMS PROBIR K. BONDYOPADHYAY, * Patent Infringement; 28 U.S.C. $ 1498; Summary Judgment; Direct Plaintiff, 'i' Infringement; Doctrine of Equivalents; Insubstantial Differences; Triple v. ''' Identity Test.

THE UNITED STATES, ,. * Defendant. * i{ **** ** ** *** * {. **** {.* +* * * *** Probir K. Bondvopadhav, Ph.D., Houston, TX, pfS gg.

Benjamin C. Mizer, Gary Hausken, and Alice Suh Jou, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Intellectual Property Stafi P.O. Box 480, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, D.C. 20044, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

WILLIAMS, Judge.

In this action, Plaintiff oro se Dr. Probir K. Bondyopadhyay.r the inventor of United States Patent No. 6,292,134 ("the '134 Patent") for a "Geodesic Sphere Phased Anay Antenna System," claims that the United States Air Force ("Air Force") infringed Claims 14, 25 and,26 of his patent

' Dr. Bondyopadhyay received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University of Brooklyn in 1983, and taught electrical engineering and computer science at both New York Institute of Technology and Maritime College. Tr.7 , 1l.

?ul,h 3Bt 0 B00B tt308 q003 by using and manufacturing a portion of a phased antenna array system.' This matter comes before the Court on Defendant's motion for summary judgment.l

Backgrounda

The'134 Patent The'134 Patent was issued on September 18,2001, to Piaintiff, inventor Dr. Probir K. Bondyopadhyay, fiom Application No. 09/513,014 ("the '014 Application") on Februuy 25,20C,0. The'014 Application claims priority to provisional Application No.60/121,874 filed on February 26, 1999. The '134 Patent consists of 30 claims - - independent Claims 1, 14, 19, and 25, and dependent Claims 2-13, 15-18,20-24, and 26-30. Plaintiff asserts that the Air Force infringes Claims 14. 25. and 26 of the '134 Patent.s

Claim 14 is illuslrative of the invention:

14. A geodesic sphere phased array antenna system for multi-satellite communications and tracking, said antenna system comprising:

a geodesic structure derived from a truncated icosahedron having twelve pentagonal and twenty hexagonal planar faces, a plurality of said geodesic planar surfaces each having mounted thereon a subarray of planar antenna element units;

' In his infringement contentions, Plaintiff also asserts infringement of Claims 1,2, 4, 5,7, and 10 based on an Air Force Research Laboratory Report published in September 2004, Ihat, according to Plaintiff, details "the design manutacturing and successful testing of a hexagonal subarray unit of the Geodesic Structure based on the regular icosahedron." Pl.'s Infringement Br. 4. However, this Court already dismissed Plaintiff s claims of infringement "prior to January I 1, 2008" as time-baned under this Court's six-year statute of limitations, 28 U.S.C. g 2501 (2016); Bondyopadhvay v. United States, No. l4-147C,2015 WL 1311726,at*5 (Fed. Cl. Mar. 20,2015). As this Air Force Report was published in 2004, Plaintiff's claims of infringement based on the Air Force's activity detailed in this report are time-barred and dismissed. Id. ("Any claims prior to January I I, 2008, are time-barred and dismissed.").

I In ruling on summary judgment, the Court has considered Plaintiff's "Motion fbr Leave of the Court' docketed as Plaintiff's "Motion of the Infringement Phase." (ECF No. 216).

4 This background is derived from the '134 Patent as well as the appendices attached to the parties' motion papers. This Court's opinions on claim construction and Defendant's partial motion to dismiss provide additional background. See Bondvoohadyav v. United States , 129 Fed. Cl. 793,795-800 (2017); Bondvophadhyav, 201-5 WL 1311'/26, at x5. Cirarions to Tr. are to rhe Court's September 28, 201,6 claim construction hearing. "GA" refers to the appendix to Defendant's motion for summary judgment.

s In his "Claims Infringement Brief," filed on March 20, 2017 , following the Court's September 28, 2016 claim construction hearing, Plaintiff limits his claims of infringement to Claims 14, 25, and26. Pl.'s Infringement Br.4 ("This work infringed upon Claims 14,25 and 26 of the Plaintiff's U.S. Patent 6,292,134."). transmit and receive signal processing means connected to each said planar antenna element unit of each said subarray for simultaneous transmission and reception of signals;

electromagnetic signal feed means connected to each said planar antenna element unit of each said subarray for forming at least one electromagnetic beam in space;

electronic switching means for selectively connecting each said planar antenna element unit of said subanays to adjacent planar antenna element unit of said subarray or adjacent subarrays for generating multiple electromagnetic beams in selective diverse directions in space;

electronic phase shifting means connected to each said planar antenna element of each said subarray for providing electronic scanning capability to said subarrays of antenna element units connected by said electronic switching means with the phased array communication space hing segmented into a plurality of smaller cellular spaces,

each said cellular communication space for electronic scanning being defined by a plurality of discrete chosen directions corresponding to the said geodesic sphere phased array structure and, each said cellular communication space adapted to be electronically scanned by a plurality of active said contiguous phased subarrays corresponding to the said cellular communication space.

' 13 4 P atent | 2:65 -13 :37 .

Overview of the Invention

The invention of the '134 Patent is directed to a "geodesic sphere phased affay antenna system," used for satellite communications. ' 134 Patent Abstract. A geodesic sphere phased array antenna system consists of a geodesic sphere with a phased antenna .uray mounted onto its planar surfaces. A geodesic sphere is a collection of multiple flat planes of various shapes such as triangles, pentagons and hexagons in which the edges of the planes are contiguously linked together to form a sphere. '134 Patefi 4'.2-6. 5:27-30, 6:4-9. A soccer ball and Disney's Epcot Center's Spaceship Earth 'golf ball" are well known examples of geodesic spheres.

A phased array antenna system is a collection of smaller antenna elements that work in a synchronized fashion to create a stronger communication signal than a single antenna alone by harmonizing the signals of multiple smaller antennas. This is accomplished by aligning the "phases" of the smaller antennas - - i.e., the sinusoidal curves tlat send a communication signal - - which increases the amplitude of that signal. ' 134 Patent I :51 -57; Haupt Decl. l[ 31-32 (Aug. 16,2016). To align these sinusoidal curves, the antennas in the array are connected by a "feed structure" that energizes, or "feeds," electromagnetic signals to each of the individual antennas in the array. '134 Patent l:51-5?. Figure I of the '134 Patent illusrarcs the invention and depicts a planar triangle 22 studded with of antenna elements which, when contiguously linked together, form the geodesic a subarray sDhere structure:

'134 Patent Fig. 1, 4:46-52 ('FIG.

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