Carrum Technologies, LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedAugust 13, 2021
Docket20-2204
StatusUnpublished

This text of Carrum Technologies, LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC (Carrum Technologies, LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC) 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
Carrum Technologies, LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC, (Fed. Cir. 2021).

Opinion

Case: 20-2204 Document: 40 Page: 1 Filed: 08/13/2021

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

CARRUM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, Appellant

v.

UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC, Appellee ______________________

2020-2204 ______________________

Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2019- 00481. ______________________

Decided: August 13, 2021 ______________________

JASON C. MURRAY, Bartlit Beck LLP, Denver, CO, ar- gued for appellant. Also represented by ANDREW BAAK, JOHN HUGHES; SARAH ELIZABETH SPIRES, Skiermont Derby LLP, Dallas, TX.

ROSHAN MANSINGHANI, Unified Patents, LLC, Wash- ington, DC, argued for appellee. Also represented by DAVID C. SEASTRUNK, JONATHAN RUDOLPH KOMINEK STROUD; RAGHAV BAJAJ, Haynes and Boone, LLP, Austin, TX; DEBRA JANECE MCCOMAS, DAVID L. MCCOMBS, DAVID M. Case: 20-2204 Document: 40 Page: 2 Filed: 08/13/2021

O'DELL, Dallas, TX; ANGELA OLIVER, Washington, DC; CLINT S. WILKINS, Plano, TX. ______________________

Before PROST, SCHALL, and O’MALLEY, Circuit Judges. O’MALLEY, Circuit Judge. Carrum Technologies, LLC (“Carrum”) appeals from a final written decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) holding claims 10 and 11 of U.S. Patent No. 7,925,416 (“the ’416 patent”) unpatentable over the prior art. Unified Pats. Inc. v. Carrum Techs., LLC, No. IPR2019-00481, 2020 WL 4004893 (P.T.A.B. July 15, 2020). For the reasons explained below, we reverse. I. BACKGROUND The ’416 patent is entitled “Automatic Lateral Acceler- ation Limiting and Non Threat Target Rejection.” ’416 pa- tent, at [54]. It relates to an adaptive cruise control system that (1) reduces vehicle speed in a turn according to the ve- hicle’s position within the turn and (2) ignores objects de- tected during the turn that are not in the vehicle’s path. 1 Id. at [57]. The specification explains that these two fea- tures address problems with prior art adaptive cruise con- trol systems. Id. at col. 1, l. 64–col. 2, l. 47. Specifically, prior art systems maintain their set speed when the vehicle is in a turn, causing excessive lateral acceleration—i.e., the feeling of being jerked to the outside edge of a car as it is turning—and possible loss of control of the vehicle. See id. When the vehicle is in a turn, these prior art systems also

1 Basic cruise control systems permit a driver of a vehicle to maintain the vehicle’s speed until the driver ap- plies the brakes or turns off the system. ’416 patent, col. 1, ll. 18–22. Adaptive cruise control systems incorporate ob- ject sensing technology to detect other vehicles and to ad- just vehicle speed accordingly. Id. at col. 1, ll. 23–33. Case: 20-2204 Document: 40 Page: 3 Filed: 08/13/2021

CARRUM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 3

respond to objects—e.g., a traffic light, stopped vehicle, or person—outside of the vehicle’s path, causing unnecessary braking or speed reduction. Id. The specification describes a relationship between lat- eral acceleration, a vehicle’s speed, and the vehicle’s posi- tion in a turn. The specification also breaks the curve of a turn into three sections: the entry, middle, and exit sec- tions. Id. at col. 5, ll. 33–40. In the entry section, a vehi- cle’s lateral acceleration begins at zero Gs and increases at a steady rate. 2 Id. at col. 5, ll. 47–49. In the middle section, the lateral acceleration increases less over time and reaches its maximum. Id. at col. 5, ll. 49–53. And in the exit section, the lateral acceleration becomes constant be- fore decreasing back to zero as the vehicle completes the turn. Id. at col. 5, ll. 53–55. Based on these known characteristics, the microproces- sor-based controller of the ’416 patent’s adaptive cruise control system can predict not only whether a vehicle is in a turn but also “the position in which [the vehicle] is located in the turn, e.g., in the entry of a turn, in the middle of a turn, or in the exit of a turn.” Id. at col. 5, ll. 41–45; see also id. at col. 5, ll. 56–67; id. at col. 6, ll. 16–24. Once the controller determines (a) that the vehicle is in a turn and (b) where in the turn the vehicle is positioned, it instructs the braking system of the vehicle to reduce preemptively the vehicle’s speed. Id. at col. 6, ll. 24–27. Preemptively doing so reduces the vehicle’s lateral acceleration to a pre- determined maximum limit according to the vehicle’s posi- tion in the turn. Id. at col. 6, ll. 27–29. To ignore detected objects outside a vehicle’s path, the ’416 patent’s system uses the vehicle’s lateral acceleration,

2 A vehicle experiences a lateral acceleration of zero Gs when it travels, for example, in its lane on a straight highway. Case: 20-2204 Document: 40 Page: 4 Filed: 08/13/2021

speed, and other data to estimate a path in the vehicle’s turn. Id. at col. 6, ll. 44–47. The system then marks the path’s boundaries and does not brake or reduce speed when a detected object is outside the path’s boundaries. See id. at col. 6, ll. 47–61. There are two claims at issue on appeal. Independent claim 10 of the ’416 patent recites: A system for use in controlling a vehicle at a vehicle speed, said system including: an adaptive cruise control system; a controller in communication with said adaptive cruise control system and capable of determin- ing when the vehicle is in a turn, said control- ler operative to reduce the vehicle speed according to a vehicle position in the turn; at least one lateral acceleration sensor for generat- ing a signal corresponding to a vehicle lateral ac- celeration, said lateral acceleration sensor in electrical communication with said controller and operative to detect a change in the vehicle lateral acceleration; at least one object detection sensor for detecting an object in a vehicle path of the vehicle during the turn, said object detection sensor in electrical com- munication with said controller, wherein said con- troller includes control logic operative to determine whether the object is in the vehicle path during the turn and ignoring the object for braking purposes when the object is not determined to be in the vehi- cle path. Id. at col. 8, l. 63–col. 9, l. 15 (emphases added). Claim 11 depends from claim 10 and recites additional limitations not at issue on appeal. As the parties do, we refer to the controller’s claimed capability to determine when the Case: 20-2204 Document: 40 Page: 5 Filed: 08/13/2021

CARRUM TECHNOLOGIES, LLC v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 5

vehicle is in a turn and its claimed operativity to reduce the vehicle speed according to a vehicle position in the turn, emphasized above, as the controller limitation. Independent claim 1 is not at issue on appeal, but the parties rely on it in their arguments on appeal. It recites “[a] method of controlling a vehicle having an adaptive cruise control system” comprising “determining when the vehicle is in a turn,” “determining a vehicle path during the turn,” “detecting an object,” “determining whether the ob- ject is in the vehicle path during the turn,” and reducing vehicle speed only if the object is in the vehicle path. See id. at col. 8, ll. 7–19. Only one prior art reference is relevant to this appeal: U.S. Patent No. 5,508,929 (“Harada”). Harada describes a vehicle control apparatus that controls a vehicle’s running conditions so that the vehicle reaches the position intended by its driver. J.A. 546 (col. 1, ll. 59–62). Specifically, Harada’s electronic control unit (“ECU”) determines the ve- hicle’s intended position based on either the angle of the vehicle’s steering wheel or front wheels. Id. (col. 2, ll. 16–26, 55–58). Harada’s ECU also determines the posi- tion that the vehicle is estimated to reach based on the run- ning state of the vehicle. Id. (col 2, ll. 26–31).

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