Cardionet, LLC v. Infobionic, Inc.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedOctober 29, 2021
Docket20-2123
StatusUnpublished

This text of Cardionet, LLC v. Infobionic, Inc. (Cardionet, LLC v. Infobionic, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cardionet, LLC v. Infobionic, Inc., (Fed. Cir. 2021).

Opinion

Case: 20-2123 Document: 55 Page: 1 Filed: 10/29/2021

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

CARDIONET, LLC, BRAEMAR MANUFACTURING, LLC, Plaintiffs-Appellants

v.

INFOBIONIC, INC., Defendant-Cross-Appellant ______________________

2020-2123, 2020-2150 ______________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in No. 1:15-cv-11803-IT, Judge Indira Talwani. ______________________

Decided: October 29, 2021 ______________________

FRANK A. DECOSTA, III, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, Washington, DC, ar- gued for plaintiffs-appellants. Also represented by ALIZA GEORGE CARRANO.

CHARLES SANDERS, Latham & Watkins LLP, Boston, MA, argued for defendant-cross-appellant. Also repre- sented by CHRISTOPHER HENRY; GABRIEL K. BELL, DIANE GHRIST, MAXIMILIAN A. GRANT, Washington, DC. Case: 20-2123 Document: 55 Page: 2 Filed: 10/29/2021

______________________

Before LOURIE, DYK, and O’MALLEY, Circuit Judges. LOURIE, Circuit Judge. CardioNet, LLC and Braemar Manufacturing, LLC (collectively, “CardioNet”) appeal from the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Massachu- setts granting summary judgment that InfoBionic did not infringe claims 1–2, 8, 11–12, and 20–21 of U.S. Patent 7,099,715 (“the ’715 patent”). CardioNet, LLC v. InfoBi- onic, Inc., No. 1:15-CV-11803-IT, 2020 WL 4559934 (D. Mass. June 22, 2020) (“Summary Judgment Decision”). In- foBionic cross-appeals from the district court’s decision that the asserted claims of CardioNet’s ’715 patent are not ineligible for patent under 35 U.S.C. § 101. CardioNet, LLC v. InfoBionic, Inc., No. 1:15-CV-11803-IT, 2017 WL 1788650 (D. Mass. May 4, 2017) (“Validity Decision”). Because we conclude that the ’715 patent claims sub- ject matter ineligible for patent, we vacate the district court’s decision granting summary judgment of nonin- fringement. We remand for the entry of judgment of no liability on the ground that the district court should have granted InfoBionic’s motion for judgment on the pleadings as to unpatentability. BACKGROUND CardioNet owns the ’715 patent, which is directed to an improved heart monitoring device. Heart monitoring de- vices measure the heart’s activity using an electrocardio- gram (“ECG”). ’715 patent at col. 1 ll. 17–25. The ECG plots the heart’s electrical signals as different waveforms on a graph, including the P wave, the R wave, and the T wave. Id. at col. 1 ll. 21–23, col. 3 ll. 61–65. The P wave corresponds to atrial depolarization. The R wave corre- sponds to ventricular depolarization. The T wave corre- sponds to ventricular repolarization and relaxation. A Case: 20-2123 Document: 55 Page: 3 Filed: 10/29/2021

CARDIONET, LLC v. INFOBIONIC, INC. 3

doctor can measure a person’s heart rate by calculating the distance between consecutive R waves. Id. at col. 3 ll. 34– 39. According to the ’715 patent, existing heart monitoring devices could be error prone. For example, the specification explains that in a normal heartbeat, the R wave is taller than the T wave (shown in figure 3 below). Id. at col. 3 ll. 61–65. However, some patients have “abnormal[ly]” tall T waves (shown in figure 4 below). Id. at col. 3 ll. 65–67. As a result, the ECG may mistakenly classify them as R waves. Id. at col. 3 ll. 52–67. Because of that misclassifi- cation, the ECG reports an inaccurately high heart rate. Id. at col. 3 ll. 55–60.

’715 patent at figs. 3–4. The ’715 patent invention purports to address such er- rors by disclosing a heart monitoring device with an alleg- edly inventive feature: a T wave filter. The T wave filter Case: 20-2123 Document: 55 Page: 4 Filed: 10/29/2021

“reduce[s] the amplitude of T waves, while preserving or slightly increasing the amplitude of R waves,” thereby im- proving the ECG’s classification accuracy. Id. at col. 3 ll. 52–60, col. 4 ll. 5–8. Of relevance to this appeal, the T wave filter may not always be “activated.” Rather, the heart monitoring device first sends the ECG data to a monitoring station. Id. at col. 4 ll. 51–60. At the monitoring station, a human operator can decide to activate the filter upon ob- serving abnormally tall T waves. Id. at col. 4 l. 61–col. 5 l. 1. To activate the filter, the operator sends a message to the monitoring apparatus. Id. The ’715 patent consists of three independent claims that are relevant to this appeal, claims 1, 11, and 20. In- dependent claim 1 recites a machine-implemented method of using the T wave filter. It reads as follows: 1. A machine-implemented method comprising: identifying heart beats in a sensed cardiac signal; activating a frequency domain T wave filter, used in said identifying heart beats, in response to a message from a monitoring station generated at least in part based upon discovery of a predeter- mined characteristic in the sensed cardiac signal; and outputting information corresponding to the iden- tified heart beats to a communications channel of a distributed cardiac activity monitoring system. Id. at col. 6 ll. 27–36; J.A. 52 (certificate of correction) (em- phases added). Independent claim 11 recites a system claim: 11. A distributed cardiac activity monitoring sys- tem comprising: a monitoring apparatus including a communica- tions interface, a real-time QRS detector, a Case: 20-2123 Document: 55 Page: 5 Filed: 10/29/2021

CARDIONET, LLC v. INFOBIONIC, INC. 5

frequency domain T wave filter, and a selector that activates the T wave filter with respect to the real- time QRS detector in response to a message, wherein the activated frequency domain T wave fil- ter preprocesses a cardiac signal provided to the realtime QRS detector; and a monitoring station that communicatively couples with the monitoring apparatus via the communica- tions interface and transmits the message to the monitoring apparatus to activate the frequency do- main T wave filter based at least in part upon a predetermined criteria. Id. at col. 7 ll. 4–18; J.A. 52 (certificate of correction) (em- phases added). Claim 20 is an apparatus claim. The district court fo- cused on claim 20, and we shall as well. It reads as follows: 20. A cardiac monitoring apparatus comprising: a communications interface; a real-time heart beat detector; a frequency domain T wave filter; and a selector that activates the frequency domain T wave filter with respect to the real-time heart beat detector in response to a message, wherein the ac- tivated frequency domain T wave filter prepro- cesses a cardiac signal provided to the real-time heart beat detector. Id. at col. 7 ll. 45–53; J.A. 52 (certificate of correction) (em- phases added). In 2016, a competitor of CardioNet, InfoBionic, mar- keted its own cardiac monitoring device, the “MoMe® Kar- dia system.” J.A. 4414–15. CardioNet alleged that the device had a T wave filter. Subsequently, it sued InfoBi- onic, asserting that the MoMe® Kardia system (second Case: 20-2123 Document: 55 Page: 6 Filed: 10/29/2021

generation) infringes claims 1–2, 8, 11–12, and 20–21 of the ’715 patent. J.A. 948, 4436–37. In response, InfoBionic moved for judgment on the pleadings that the asserted claims of the ’715 patent are ineligible for patent under § 101. J.A. 773. The district court denied InfoBionic’s motion, holding that the asserted claims of the ’715 patent are not ineligible under § 101. The court analyzed the claims under the Su- preme Court’s two-step Alice framework for determining patent eligibility. At step one, it determined that claim 20 is directed to the abstract idea of “filtering raw cardiogram data to optimize its output.” Validity Decision, 2017 WL 1788650, at *10.

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