Ericsson Inc. v. TCL Communication Technology Holdings, Ltd.

161 F. Supp. 3d 438, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179421, 2015 WL 11110615
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Texas
DecidedNovember 30, 2015
DocketCase No. 2:15-cv-00011-RSP
StatusPublished

This text of 161 F. Supp. 3d 438 (Ericsson Inc. v. TCL Communication Technology Holdings, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ericsson Inc. v. TCL Communication Technology Holdings, Ltd., 161 F. Supp. 3d 438, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179421, 2015 WL 11110615 (E.D. Tex. 2015).

Opinion

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION ORDER

ROY S. PAYNE, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Before the Court is the opening claim construction brief of Ericsson Inc. and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (collectively “Plaintiffs” or “Ericsson”) (Dkt. No. 81, filed on August 14, 2015),1 the response of TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd., TCT Mobile Limited, and TCT Mobile (US), Inc. (collectively, “Defendants” or “TCL”) (Dkt. No. 91, filed on August 28, 2015), and the Reply of Plaintiffs (Dkt. No. 97, filed on September 4, 2015). After [442]*442the conclusion of briefing, the parties jointly filed a claim construction chart representing that the parties have resolved their disputes with respect to certain terms. (Dkt. No. 109, filed on September 22, 2015). The Court held a claim construction hearing on September 29, 2015. Having considered the arguments and evidence presented by the parties at the hearing and in their briefing, the Court issues this Order.

Table of Contents

I. BACKGROUND . . . 442

II. LEGAL PRINCIPLES.. .443

A. Claim Construction... 443

B. Departing from the Ordinary Meaning of a Claim Term... 445

C. Definiteness Under 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 2 (pre-AIA) / § 112(b) (AIA)... 446

III. CONSTRUCTION OF AGREED TERMS... 446

IV. CONSTRUCTION OF DISPUTED TERMS... 449

A. The ’510 Patent — “software services component”.. .449

B. The ’510 Patent — “a cache with the rules and policies of the decision entity”... 451

C. The ’310 Patent — “control program” ...453

D. The ’310 Patent — “a control program in JAVA language” and “a control program in an interpretive computer programming language”.. .454

V. CONCLUSION .. .457

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff alleges infringement of U.S. Patents No. 7,149,510 (“the ’510 Patent”), No. 6,029,052 (“the ’052 Patent”), No. 6,418,310 (“the ’310 Patent”), No. RE 43,-931 (“the ’931 Patent”), and No. 6,535,815 (“the ’815 Patent”) (collectively, the “Asserted Patents”). In general, the Asserted Patents are directed to systems and methods for controlling the software and hardware functionality of mobile devices such as cell phones. The disputed claim terms are found in the ’510 and ’310 Patents.

The ’510 Patent is entitled “SECURITY ACCESS MANAGER IN MIDDLE-WARE.” It issued December 12, 2006 and has a filing date of September 19, 2003. The ’510 patent teaches a system for controlling application access to software and hardware services in a mobile platform. An exemplary embodiment is depicted in Figure 1 of the ’510 Patent, reproduced here and annotated by the Court. Application software (blue) is installed, loaded, and run on the mobile platform. ’510 Patent at 4:14-16. The software services component (green) is composed of software units that provide services, e.g. application services (id. at 5:33-35), audio access and control (id. at 5:38), structured storage services (id. at 5:40), and hardware driver software (id. at 5:1). The hardware component (red) includes a set of hardware units that are associated with and controlled by their respective software units. Id. at 4:27-32. The application software can request access to the software services component. Such service requests are intercepted by an interception module. Id. at 7:11-13. Once the request is intercepted, a decision entity determines whether the request should be granted based on the security policies of the mobile platform. See id. at 8:1-15, 8:26^1.

[443]*443[[Image here]]

The ’310 Patent is entitled “WIRELESS SUBSCRIBER TERMINAL USING JAVA CONTROL CODE.” It issued July 9, 2002 and has a filing date of August 5, 1999. The ’310 patent teaches a portable ■wireless communications device with a processor that includes in its read-only memory (“ROM”) an interpreter and a control program written in an interpretive language such as JAVA. ’310 Patent at 2:34-54. An embodiment of the invention is shown in Figure 3 of the ’310 Patent, reproduced here and annotated by the Court. In this embodiment, the processor (green) has read-only memory (“ROM”) which contains a software control program (orange) written in JAVA source code and stored as JAVA byte codes instead of being compiled and stored as native machine code. Id. at 6:1-4. A JAVA Virtual Machine (yellow) is stored in the ROM as native machine code; the JAVA Virtual Machine acts as a translator, interpreting the JAVA byte codes for the processor. Id. at 6:5-8. The interpreted JAVA is used to control various aspects of the wireless device including its radio circuits (blue). Id. at 5:65-67, 6:8-14. By storing the control program as JAVA rather than native machine code, the ’310 Patent enables the same control program code to be used across different types of processors and devices. See id. at 6:51-59.

[[Image here]]

II. LEGAL PRINCIPLES

A. Claim Construction

“It is a ‘bedrock principle’ of patent law that ‘the claims of a patent define the invention to which the patentee is entitled the right to exclude.’ ” Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312 (Fed.Cir.2005) (en banc) (quoting Innova/Pure Water Inc. v. Safari Water Filtration Sys., Inc., 381 F.3d 1111, 1115 (Fed.Cir.2004)). To determine the meaning of the claims, [444]*444courts start by considering the intrinsic evidence. Id. at 1313; C.R. Bard, Inc. v. U.S. Surgical Corp., 388 F.3d 858, 861 (Fed.Cir.2004); Bell Atl. Network Servs., Inc. v. Covad Commc’ns Group, Inc., 262 F.3d 1258, 1267 (Fed.Cir.2001). The intrinsic evidence includes the claims themselves, the specification, and the prosecution history. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1314; C.R. Bard, Inc., 388 F.3d at 861. The general rule — subject to certain specific exceptions discussed infra — is that each claim term is construed according to its ordinary and accustomed meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention in the context of the patent. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1312-13; Alloc, Inc. v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, 342 F.3d 1361, 1368 (Fed.Cir.2003); Azure Networks, LLC v. CSR PLC, 771 F.3d 1336, 1347 (Fed.Cir.2014) (“There is a heavy presumption that claim terms carry their accustomed meaning in the relevant community at the relevant time.”) (vacated on other grounds).

“The claim construction inquiry ... begins and ends in all eases with the actual words of the claim.” Renishaw PLC v. Marposs Societa’ per Azioni,

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161 F. Supp. 3d 438, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179421, 2015 WL 11110615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ericsson-inc-v-tcl-communication-technology-holdings-ltd-txed-2015.