Columbia River Mining Supplies LLC v. Colter Young Consulting & Design

CourtDistrict Court, D. Idaho
DecidedJune 7, 2022
Docket1:20-cv-00384
StatusUnknown

This text of Columbia River Mining Supplies LLC v. Colter Young Consulting & Design (Columbia River Mining Supplies LLC v. Colter Young Consulting & Design) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Idaho primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Columbia River Mining Supplies LLC v. Colter Young Consulting & Design, (D. Idaho 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF IDAHO

COLUMBIA RIVER MINING SUPPLIES, LLC,

Plaintiff,

Case No. 1:20-cv-00384-JCG v.

OPINION AND ORDER COLTER YOUNG CONSULTING & ON CLAIM CONSTRUCTION DESIGN, COLTER YOUNG CONSULTING LLC, and COLTER YOUNG,

Defendants.

This matter is before the Court for claim construction of U.S. Patent No. 9,358,550 B2. Defendants Colter Young Consulting & Design, Colter Young Consulting LLC, and Colter Young (collectively, “Defendants”) seek construction of the following terms: “radial hilt,” “applied along,” “inserting within,” “sliding engagement,” and “slidably engaged within.”1 Defs.’ Opening Claim Construction Br. (“Defs.’ Br.”) at 10–19 (Dkt. 67); see also Defs.’ Resp. Br. Pl.’s Opening Claim Construction Br. (“Defs.’ Resp.”) (Dkt. 74); Defs.’ Reply Br. Pl.’s Resp. Br. Regarding Defs.’ Opening Claim Construction Br. (“Defs.’ Reply”) (Dkt. 77). Plaintiff Columbia River Mining Supplies, LLC (“Plaintiff” or “Columbia River Mining”) contends that the claim terms should be given

1 At the Markman hearing on August 26, 2021, Defendants withdrew their request for claim construction of the following terms: “tool section,” “handle section,” “handle section grommet,” and “movable between.” Dkt. Entry (Dkt. 78); Markman Hr’g 1:38:20–1:40:25 (time stamp from the recording on file with the Court). their plain and ordinary meaning because the claim terms are readily understandable by a lay person.2 Columbia River Mining Supplies, LLC’s Opening Claim Construction Br. (“Pl.’s Br.”) at 2 (Dkt. 68); see also Columbia River Mining Supplies, LLC’s Responsive

Claim Construction Br. (“Pl.’s Resp.”) (Dkt. 75); Columbia River Mining Supplies, LLC’s Reply Claim Construction Br. (“Pl.’s Reply”) (Dkt. 76). The Court held a Markman hearing on August 26, 2021. Dkt. Entry (Dkt. 78). The patent at issue, U.S. Patent No. 9,358,550 B2 (the “’550 Patent”), has no prosecution history and the Parties did not call expert witnesses. Having considered the claim construction briefs and the

arguments of counsel, the Court construes the disputed claim terms as set forth below. BACKGROUND Plaintiff filed suit against Defendants for infringement of the ’550 Patent, federal trademark infringement and unfair competition, unfair competition and trademark infringement under Arizona common law, commercial disparagement, and tortious

interference with business expectancy. Am. Compl. Patent Infringement (“Am. Compl.”) ¶¶ 39–151 (Dkt. 14). This Opinion concerns the first step of the two-step infringement analysis—construction of claims asserted in the ’550 Patent. The ’550 Patent is titled the Black Sand Magnetic Separator and was issued on June 7, 2016. ’550 Patent, at [54], [45]. The ’550 Patent applicant and inventor of the

Black Sand Magnetic Separator is David Urick, the owner and operator of Columbia

2 The Court recognizes that this is the incorrect legal standard and that it should be a person of ordinary skill in the art. Thorner v. Sony Comput. Ent. Am. LLC, 669 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (citing Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc)). River Mining. Id. at [71], [72]; Am. Compl. ¶ 20. The Black Sand Magnetic Separator is “[a] primary ore separation device used to remove magnetic particles from non-magnetic particles in a mixture utiliz[ing] a spinning magnet within a non-conductive cylindrical

tube . . . [that] separates and spins away the non-magnetic particles.” ’550 Patent, at [57]. “[T]he device [is] generally used upon mixed ore materials containing gold and other precious metals contained within the non-magnetic particles.” Id. CLAIM CONSTRUCTION STANDARD When the meaning of a patent claim’s language is disputed, the court must

construe the claim as a matter of law. Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 52 F.3d 967, 979 (Fed. Cir. 1995) (en banc), aff’d, 517 U.S. 370 (1996). “[T]he construction of a patent, including terms of art within its claim, is exclusively within the province of the court.” Markman, 517 U.S. at 372. “The purpose of claim construction is to ‘determin[e] the meaning and scope of the patent claims asserted to be infringed.’” O2 Micro Int’l

Ltd. v. Beyond Innovation Tech. Co., 521 F.3d 1351, 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (citing Markman, 52 F.3d at 976). “The patent is a fully integrated written instrument.” Markman, 52 F.3d at 978. For the purpose of claim construction, “[a] court should look first to the intrinsic evidence of record, i.e., the patent itself, including the claims, the specification, and, if in

evidence, the prosecution history.” Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, Inc., 90 F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed. Cir. 1996) (citing Markman, 52 F.3d at 979). “The words of a claim are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning as understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art when read in the context of the specification and prosecution history.” Thorner v. Sony Comput. Ent. Am. LLC, 669 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (citing Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc)). Limitations from dependent claims, the specification, and embodiments will not be

read into the claims. “The doctrine of claim differentiation [] creates a presumption that [] dependent claim limitations are not included in the independent claim.” GE Lighting Sols., LLC v. AgiLight, Inc., 750 F.3d 1304, 1310 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (citation omitted). Limitations found in the specification are not imposed into the claims. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1323–24. In the same vein, “[i]t is improper to read limitations from a preferred

embodiment described in the specification—even if it is the only embodiment—into the claims absent a clear indication in the intrinsic record that the patentee intended the claims to be so limited.” GE Lighting Sols., 750 F.3d at 1309 (citation omitted) (discussing a figure as a “depicted embodiment”). DISCUSSION

The Parties dispute the necessity of construction for five claim terms that appear in the sole independent claim, Claim 1: “radial hilt,” “applied along,” “inserting within,” “sliding engagement,” and “slidably engaged within.” The Court addresses the disputed claim terms and Defendants’ proposed constructions in turn. I. Radial Hilt

The independent claim, Claim 1, recites “a non-magnetic radial hilt applied along said outer surface upon said cylindrical housing.” ’550 Patent col. 5 ll. 66–67. Defendants assert that the Court should construe the term “radial hilt” to mean “raised portion transversely circumscribing the outer surface of the cylindrical housing forming a barrier.” Defs.’ Br. at 13 (emphasis omitted); see also id. at 12 (citing Am. Compl. ¶¶ 58–61). Plaintiff asserts that the term “radial hilt” does not require construction or in the alternative, the Court should construe it as “raised portion.” Pl.’s Resp. at 15.

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Columbia River Mining Supplies LLC v. Colter Young Consulting & Design, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/columbia-river-mining-supplies-llc-v-colter-young-consulting-design-idd-2022.