Evolved Wireless, LLC v. Apple Inc.

221 F. Supp. 3d 485, 2016 WL 6440137
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedOctober 31, 2016
DocketCiv. No. 15-542-SLR, Civ. No. 15-543-SLR, Civ. No. 15-544-SLR, Civ. No. 15-545-SLR, Civ. No. 15-546-SLR, Civ. No. 15-547-SLR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 221 F. Supp. 3d 485 (Evolved Wireless, LLC v. Apple Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evolved Wireless, LLC v. Apple Inc., 221 F. Supp. 3d 485, 2016 WL 6440137 (D. Del. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROBINSON, District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

In June 2015, plaintiff Evolved Wireless, LLC (“plaintiff’) brought separate patent infringement actions against the following defendants: Apple, Inc.; HTC Corporation; HTC America, Inc.; Lenovo Group Ltd.; Lenovo (United States) Inc.; Motorola Mobility; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Samsung Electronics America, Inc.; ZTE (USA) Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Microsoft Mobile Oy; and Microsoft Mobile Inc. (collectively, “defendants”). In each separate action, plaintiff alleges that the defendants infringe five patents, including U.S. Patent Nos. 7,746,916 (“the ’916 patent”) and 8,218,481 (“the ’481 patent”). The court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1338(a).

Defendants have moved for judgment on the pleadings as to the ’916 patent and ’481 patent, arguing that those patents claim patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. (D.I. 71)1 Patent eligibility under § 101 is a question of law that may be resolved at the pleading stage. Cyberfone Sys., LLC v. CNN Interactive Grp., Inc., 558 Fed.Appx. 988, 991 (Fed. Cir. 2014); Content Extraction & Transmission LLC v. Wells Fargo Bank, 776 F.3d 1343, 1349 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (affirming decision to declare claims patent-ineligible under § 101 at pleading stage). For the reasons discussed below, defendants’ motions are denied.

II. BACKGROUND

The ’916 and ’481 patents relate to mobile phones and devices using the LTE standard, which is the current standard in wireless communications systems. (D.I. 1 ¶ 15) Mobile (cellular) phones and devices allow users to make or receive telephone calls and transmit and receive data wire-lessly over a wide geographical area. {Id. at ¶ 18) The increasing number of mobile devices and the advancement of mobile device technology with increased features have driven demand for faster and more reliable data transmissions. {Id. at ¶ 22) The patents claim “specific solutions to improve mobile device functionality over the prior art with faster, more reliable, and more efficient voice and data transmissions.” {Id. at ¶ 25)

A. The ’916 Patent

The ’916 patent claims methods and systems for generating and transmitting “a code sequence from a transmitting party to a receiving party in a wireless communication system.” (D.I. 1-1 at 1:15-18) As the patent specification explains, a “preamble” of a wireless communication system is used for initial synchronization, cell search, and channel estimation. (D.I. 1-1 at 1:20-26) The preamble is comprised of a code sequence, and the code sequence is further comprised of orthogonal or quasiorthogo-nal codes. (D.I. 1-1 at 1:20-26)

The ’916 patent has 11 claims, including method claims 1-5 and 11 and apparatus claims 6-10. (D.I. 1-1 at 17:35-18:65) For the purposes of this motion, the parties [488]*488have primarily focused on claim 1, which states:

1. A method for transmitting a code sequence from a transmitting party to a receiving party in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
(a) acquiring a code sequence having a second length by a cyclic extension of a code sequence having a first length;
(b) performing a circular shift to the code sequence having the second length; and
(c) transmitting the circular shifted code sequence having the second length to the receiving party,
(d) wherein the first length is a largest prime number smaller than the second length, and
(e) wherein the cyclic extension of the code sequence having the first length is performed such that a part of the code sequence having the first length, having a length corresponding to a difference between the first length and the second length, is added to either a start or an end of the code sequence having the first length, and
(f) wherein the circular shift is performed to the code sequence having the second length such that either a rear portion of the code sequence having the second length moves to a start of the code sequence having the second length, or a front portion of the code sequence having the second length moves to an end of the code sequence having the second length.

(Id. at 17:35-57)

Limitations (a) through (c) of claim 1 provide the steps for generating and transmitting a code sequence. Limitation (a) explains that a code sequence is acquired by performing a mathematical operation called a “cyclic extension” on a starting code sequence. (Id. at 17:38-41) The cyclic extension copies the front of the starting sequence to its end (or copies the end of the starting sequence to its front). (Id. at 17:46-50) For example, a cyclic extension of the sequence “34567” yields “345673” because the “3” at the front of “34567” is copied to the end. (D.I. 72 at 4) Limitation (b) requires another mathematical operation called a “circular shift,” which shifts the cyclically extended sequence by moving a portion of the sequence from one end of the sequence to the opposite end. (D.I. 1-1 at 11:25-29) For example, a circular shift of “345673” yields “733456” because the “73” at the end of the sequence is moved to the front of the sequence and the remaining numbers are shifted to the right. (D.I, 72 at 4) Limitation (c) requires the transmission of the circular-shifted code sequence “to the receiving party.” (D.I. 1-1 at 17:42-43)

Limitations (d) through (f) provide further specific limitations on the claim. Limitation (d) requires the starting sequence to have a length that is a prime number (as in the example above, because “34567” has a length of five digits, and five is a prime number). (Id. at 44-45; D.I. 72 at 4-5) Limitations (e) and (!) specify that the mathematical operations of cyclic extension and circular shift can be carried out on in either direction, front to back or back to front.

Independent method claim 11 includes most of the same requirements as claim 1, but reverses the order of the steps, performing the cyclic extension before the circular shift. (D.I. 1-1 at 17:44-65) Independent apparatus claim 6 includes language nearly identical to that of claim 1 but couches the mathematical operations of cyclic extension and circular shift in [489]*489terms of the capabilities of a generic structural component called “a code sequence generator,” and adds “a transmitting unit” with the ability to transmit. (Id. at 17:7-28)

Dependent claims 2-4 and 7-8 specify that the starting sequence includes “at least a cyclic prefix or a cyclic postfix” (meaning an additional sequence portion at either the front or back, respectively), or constitutes a “Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence” (a particular type of prior art mathematical sequence). (D.I.

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221 F. Supp. 3d 485, 2016 WL 6440137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evolved-wireless-llc-v-apple-inc-ded-2016.