Disk Authoring Technologies LLC v. Corel Corp.

122 F. Supp. 3d 98, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103986, 2015 WL 4720304
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 7, 2015
DocketNo. 14-cv-9583 (KBF)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 122 F. Supp. 3d 98 (Disk Authoring Technologies LLC v. Corel Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Disk Authoring Technologies LLC v. Corel Corp., 122 F. Supp. 3d 98, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103986, 2015 WL 4720304 (S.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION & ORDER

KATHERINE B. FORREST, District Judge.

On December 4, 2014, plaintiff Disk Authoring Technologies LLC (“plaintiff’ or “DAT”) filed this action against defendant Corel' Corporation (“defendant” or “Corel Corp.”) alleging that defendant’s products infringe two patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 6,215,743 (the “'743 Patent?»)'and 6,339,568 (the “'568 Patent”), relating to optical disk recording and • reproducing technologies. (ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”).) On May 26, 2015, defendant filed a motion for partial summary judgment (the “licensing motion”) arguing that it has a license to distribute two of the products at issue in this action, DVD MovieFactory and VideoStu-dio. The licensing motion became fully briefed on July 20,2015.

The licensing motion presents two separate issues: The first is whether there exists a license covering predecessor versions of the DVD MovieFactory and Vi-deoStudio products together with their “updates and upgrades” (the “licensing issue”). The second is whether, if so, the current versions of these products fall within the scope of that license — ie„ constitute “updates and upgrades” of the' covered predecessor versions (the “scope issue”). For the' reasons set forth below, defendant’s motion is GRANTED as to the licensing issue with respect to both products, GRANTED as to the scope issue with respect to the DVD MovieFactory product, and DENIED as to the scope issue with respect to the VideoStudio product. As further explained below, defendant- has a license with respect to the DVD MovieFac-tory and VideoStudio products as they existed on March 1, 2009 as well as their “updates and upgrades.” While there is no genuine dispute that the DVD Movie-Factory product has remained unchanged since March 1, 2009, there is a triable issue of fact as to whether the changes to the VideoStudio product in the relevant time period constitute “updates and upgrades” under the license terms.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. The InterVideo License

At the center of this motion is a 2002 Settlement and License Agreement (the “InterVideo License” or the “License”). (Declaration of Thomas Walsh in Support of Defendant Corel Corp.’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Regarding Its License Defense (“Walsh Deck”) Ex. A.) The InterVideo License -was executed on December 4, 2002 as part of a settlement of a patent infringement action against InterVi-[101]*101deo, .Inc. (“InterVideo' US”) brought by Yasuo Kamatani (“Kamatani”), the named inventor of the -'743 and '568 Patents, and a company called LaserDynamics, Inc. (“LaserDynamics”).

The InterVideo License identifies the parties to the License as follows:

This Settlement and License Agreement is made and entered into as of the EFFECTIVE DATE in duplicate originals, by and between Yasuo Kamatani (“Ka-matani”) and InterVideo, Inc. (collectively “InterVideo”), ... and LaserDynam-ics Inc. (“LaserDynamics”)

(InterVideo License at 1.)

The License grants “InterVideo” full rights as to products covered by the “LICENSED CLAIMS”:

LaserDynamics hereby grants to Inter-Video and its successors and permitted assigns an irrevocable, non-exclusive, perpetúal, world-wide, royalty-free, fully paid-up license to research, develop, make, use, practice, import, have imported, market, sell, have sold, offer to sell, distribute, have distributed, lease, license or otherwise dispose of software covered by one or more LICENSED CLAIMS.. InterVideo is not licensed in any way with respect to any DVD DISK or the contents of a DVD DISK. This license shall allow InterVideo’s customers, partners, distributors, OEMS,- or purchasers- to make, use, import, have imported, market, sell, have sold, offer to sell, distribute, have distributed, lease, or otherwise dispose of the products obtained from InterVideo. InterVi-deo customers, -partners, distributors, OEMS, and purchasers are not expressly or impliedly licensed with respect to any DVD DISK or DVD drive. This Agreement provides InterVideo with no right to sub-license the LICENSED -CLAIMS. .

(InterVideo License § 2.5.)

“LICENSED CLAIMS” include, inter alia, the claims of the '743 Patent and the claims of its divisional applications:

“LICENSED CLAIMS”.means (a) any claim of any patent resulting from an application 'filed by Kamatani dr Laser-Dynamics before the EFFECTIVE DATE which claim covers DVD DECODING SOFTWARE alone or together with other elements; and/or (b) any or all claims of the '743 patent. LICENSED - CLAIMS also include any claims of. any patent which results, from any reissues, reexaminations, renewals, divisional, extensions, substitutions, continuations, continuations-in-part or foreign counterparts of any patents containing LICENSED CLAIMS as defined in the preceding sentence.

(InterVideo License § 1.5.) The '568 Patent issued, from a divisional application of the '743 Patent. . (See Compl. Ex. B (’568 Patent); Defendant Corel Corporation’s Statement of Undisputed Facts Supporting Corel Corp.’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Regarding.Its License Defense (“Corel 56.1”) ¶ 5.) Accordingly, both the '743 Patent claims and the '568 Patent claims are LICENSED CLAIMS under the InterVideo License. (Id. ¶ 6.)

Critically, the rights under the InterVi-deo License are granted to “InterVideo,” which is defined,, to include InterVideo, Ine.’s current and future wholly owned subsidiaries: .

“InterVideo” refers to InterVideo, Inc. and its current and future directors, officers, employees, agents, servants, representatives, shareholders, insurers, attorneys, and wholly owned subsidiaries.

(InterVideo License § 1.6.) .

The InterVideo License contains the following provision, entitled “Non-Assign[102]*102ment” but in fact granting certain assignment rights. This provision is critical to the instant motion:

This Agreement shall inure to the benefit of and be binding upon the parties hereto as well as their successors and permitted assigns. Either party may assign its rights under this Agreement without the other party’s consent to an acquirer of or successor to all or substantially all of the assigning party’s stock, assets, or business to which this Agreement relates; provided, however, that the license will only apply to the existing products of the assigning party (i.e. those which have been released or are under development at the time of entering into the acquisition agreement) and not to any separate products of the acquirer. Following such an acquisition, the license will extend to updates and upgrades of such existing products. Neither party shall otherwise assign or transfer any of its rights, privileges or obligations hereunder without the prior written consent of the other party, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld.

(InterVideo License art. 8.) Article 8 thus creates a “freeze” on the products covered by the InterVideo License as of a certain time: when the freeze takes hold, only the assignor’s then-existing products and their “updates and upgrades” are covered by the License.

B. Relevant Corporate Transactions

Between 2006 and 2009, InterVideo and the Corel corporate family (“Corel”) were involved in several merger and corporate restructuring events.

On August 28, 2006, defendant Corel Corp.

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122 F. Supp. 3d 98, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103986, 2015 WL 4720304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/disk-authoring-technologies-llc-v-corel-corp-nysd-2015.