Emtel, Inc. v. Lipidlabs, Inc.

907 F. Supp. 2d 833, 2012 WL 5377793, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155789
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedOctober 31, 2012
DocketCivil Action No. H-07-1798
StatusPublished

This text of 907 F. Supp. 2d 833 (Emtel, Inc. v. Lipidlabs, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Emtel, Inc. v. Lipidlabs, Inc., 907 F. Supp. 2d 833, 2012 WL 5377793, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155789 (S.D. Tex. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND OPINION

LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge.

In 2007, Emtel filed this action alleging infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,129,970 (the '970 Patent). (Docket Entry No. 1). In 2008, this court ruled that defendant Specialists on Call (“SOC”)1 had not infringed the ’970 Patent claims. (Docket Entry No. 58; Emtel, Inc. v. Lipidlabs, Inc., 583 F.Supp.2d 811 (S.D.Tex.2008)). This case was stayed while Emtel sought reissuance by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”). (Docket Entries No. 61, 62). On April 12, 2011, the patent was reissued as U.S. Reissue Patent No. 42,288 (the ’288 Patent). (Docket Entries No. 63, 64). The stay was lifted and Em-tel amended its complaint to add claims that SOC infringed the ’288 Patent. (Docket Entries No. 69, 86).

SOC has moved for summary judgment of noninfringement. (Docket Entry No. 98). This court held a hearing at which the parties presented oral argument on SOC’s motion. (Docket Entry No. 114).2 After the hearing, the court ordered limited additional discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) and set a schedule for supplemental submissions. (Id.) Both parties have supplemented their summary-judgment briefs and supporting materials. (Docket Entries No. 117, 121, 122).

Based on a careful review of the pleadings; the motions, responses, and replies; the summary-judgment evidence; the arguments of counsel; and the applicable [835]*835law, this court finds that the present record is inadequate to grant SOC’s summary judgment motion. SOC’s motion is denied, for the reasons explained in detail below.

I. Background

A. Emtel’s '288 Patent

The '288 Patent claims a method and system for a physician to provide emergency medical consultation to two patients at two remote locations at the same time. The physician at a central location establishes video links to the two remote locations. The physician receives video images and sound of both remote patients simultaneously. The issue in this case is whether SOC has a system that a physician can use, and has used, to see and hear multiple patients at remote locations simultaneously, by videoconference.

The '970 Patent had 8 claims. The reissued '288 Patent has 19 claims. (Docket Entry No. 99, Ex. 1, '288 Patent). Claims 1-8 of the '288 Patent are either the same as the claims in the '970 Patent or have been narrowed in ways that do not affect the basis for this court’s prior decision finding no infringement. (See id., col. 10, 1. 57-col. 12,1. 54).3 Claims 1-8 of the '288 Patent are not infringed for the same reasons the court found they were not infringed in the earlier ruling.4 The '288 Patent claims at issue are claims 9-19.

The claims added in the '288 Patent fall into two categories. Claims 9-14 are system claims, and Claims 15-19 are method claims. These new claims are directed to a system or method of providing medical-consultation services to two remote facilities, with a physician at a central location simultaneously viewing video sent from both remote locations. All of the new claims require two audio-video communications links between a central medical facility and two remote facilities, so that a physician at the central facility can simultaneously watch the video from the two remote locations.

Claim 12 is representative:

[836]*836■12. An arrangement for diagnosing emergency medical conditions- of patients comprising:
a central medical'video conferencing station;
first and second satellite emergency medical care facilities which are geographically remotely located from each other and from said central medical video conferencing station;
a first video camera located at said first satellite emergency medical care facility;
a second video camera located at said second satellite emergency medical care facility;
a first video conferencing communication link established between said central medical video conferencing station and said first satellite emergency medical care facility which enables a first video image from said first video camera of a first patient at said first satellite emergency medical care facility to be displayed at said central medical video conferencing station; and
a second video conferencing communication link established between said central medical video conferencing station and said second satellite emergency medical care facility which enables a second video image from said second video camera of a second patient at said second satellite emergency medical care facility to be displayed at said central medical video conferencing station simultaneously with display of said first video image at said central medical video conferencing station;
whereby medical conditions of said first and second patients can be evaluated substantially simultaneously by an emergency room physician at said central medical video conferencing station.

(Id., col. 13, 1. 50-col. 14, 1. 14 (emphasis added)).

The italicized language, requiring the establishment (or, in claim 15, “use”) of a videoconference link between the central facility and two remote facilities, is common to claims 9-19. These claims require that a physician at the central conference station be able to view video from both remote facilities simultaneously. (Id., col. 13, 11. 29-32 (Claim 9); col. 14, 11. 11-14 (Claim 12); col. 14, 11. 59-67 (Claim 15); col. 15, 11. 26-col. 16, 11. 2 (Claim 18)). Emtel and SOC agree that “simultaneous” means “at the same time.” (Docket Entry No. 112, at 8).

B. SOC

SOC is a telemedicine company that provides patients across the country with access to medical specialists. These specialists are available to consult with patients via telephone and videoconference. SOC’s business is to support and facilitate patient access to medical diagnosis and treatment by specialized physicians who would otherwise likely be inaccessible to the patient. (Docket Entry No. 99, Ex. 2, SOC CEO Joe Peterson Deck, ¶¶ 5, 20). The specialists are in various areas, including neurology and psychiatry.

SOC submitted a declaration by David Gigas, its Director of Information Technology, describing the SOC system that allows its physicians to examine patients who are in a different location. SOC provides equipment to its specialists in a central location and to subscribing hospitals or medical clinics. Patients at these hospitals or clinics and their treating physicians use the equipment to communicate with the specialist. SOC uses standard, off-the-shelf, commercial computing and videoconferencing equipment. (Docket Entry No. [837]*83799, Ex. 4, Gigas Decl., ¶¶ 5, 8). The equipment consists of three main elements: a “hospital endpoint,” located at the hospital or clinic; a “physician endpoint,” at the same location as the SOC specialist; and a video-call server SOC maintains. (Id., ¶¶ 5-7). SOC preprograms the physician endpoints used by the SOC specialists with a “phonebook” of the SOC-member hospitals or clinics. (Id.,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Little v. Liquid Air Corp.
37 F.3d 1069 (Fifth Circuit, 1994)
Lincoln General Ins. v. Reyna
401 F.3d 347 (Fifth Circuit, 2005)
Boudreaux v. Swift Transportation Co.
402 F.3d 536 (Fifth Circuit, 2005)
DIRECTV, Inc. v. Robson
420 F.3d 532 (Fifth Circuit, 2005)
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chemical Co.
520 U.S. 17 (Supreme Court, 1997)
Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co.
535 U.S. 722 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Fujitsu Limited v. Netgear Inc.
620 F.3d 1321 (Federal Circuit, 2010)
Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc.
629 F.3d 1311 (Federal Circuit, 2010)
Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. Gateway, Inc.
580 F.3d 1301 (Federal Circuit, 2009)
BMC Resources, Inc. v. Paymentech, L.P.
498 F.3d 1373 (Federal Circuit, 2007)
ACCO Brands, Inc. v. ABA Locks Manufacturer Co.
501 F.3d 1307 (Federal Circuit, 2007)
Moleculon Research Corporation v. Cbs, Inc.
793 F.2d 1261 (Federal Circuit, 1986)
Netword, LLC v. Centraal Corporation
242 F.3d 1347 (Federal Circuit, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
907 F. Supp. 2d 833, 2012 WL 5377793, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/emtel-inc-v-lipidlabs-inc-txsd-2012.