Finjan, LLC. v. Cisco Systems Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided May 11, 2020·No. 5:17-cv-00072·Unknown

Opinion

FINJAN, INC., Case No. 17-cv-00072-BLF (SVK) Plaintiff, ORDER ON CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.’S MOTION TO STRIKE PORTIONS OF v. FINJAN’S AMENDED EXPERT REPORT ON INFRINGEMENT OF CISCO SYSTEMS INC., PATENT NO. 7,647,633 Defendant. Re: Dkt. No. 492 Defendant Cisco Systems, Inc. seeks to strike portions of the report of Plaintiff Finjan, Inc.’s expert witness Nenad Medvidovic, Ph.D. on the grounds that the report contains theories of infringement of Patent No. 7,647,633 that were not disclosed in Finjan’s infringement contentions dated November 30, 2017 (the “Operative Contentions”). Dkt. 492. As discussed below, Judge Freeman directed Cisco to make this motion to strike to the undersigned. The Court held a telephonic hearing on April 21, 2020. After considering the arguments made at the hearing, the parties’ briefs, the case file, and relevant law, the Court GRANTS Cisco’s motion to strike for the reasons and on the terms set forth below. I. BACKGROUND A. Finjan’s Infringement Contentions Cisco’s present motion to strike is the latest skirmish in a long-running battle between the parties over the contours of Finjan’s infringement arguments. On November 30, 2017, Finjan served the Operative Contentions concerning its infringement claims. See Dkt. 492-1 at ¶¶ 2-3 and Exs. 1 and 2. On April 18, 2019, Finjan filed a motion to amend the Operative Contentions to identify additional evidence in support of its infringement claims, including adding the names of regarding the associated functionalities. Dkt. 231. Judge Freeman referred the motion to amend to the undersigned. Dkt. 238. Following a hearing, this Court issued an order denying Finjan’s motion to amend on June 11, 2019, holding that “[i]t appears from the Court’s careful review of the proposed [supplemental infringement chart] and the arguments presented at the hearing that Finjan’s proposed amendments to identify components are significantly more complex and prejudicial than Finjan has portrayed them.” Dkt. 274 (the “SVK Contentions Order”) at 7. The Court noted that because Finjan had not submitted a redline of the contentions showing its extensive proposed amendments, “the Court is unable to determine that Finjan’s proposed amendments are limited to clarifying the existing contentions rather than expanding them.” Id. On July 17, 2019, Judge Freeman rejected Finjan’s request for relief from the SVK Contentions Order, stating that she “concurs with Judge van Keulen’s determination that the issue is more complex than initially presented by Finjan.” Dkt. 304 (the “BLF Contentions Order”) at 2-3. Judge Freeman noted that “[t]he Court would have expected Finjan to present a list of newly identified internal code names to be swapped out for less precise designations in the infringement contentions” but despite being advised of this “deficiency” by the SVK Contentions Order, “Finjan has done nothing to persuade this Court that the true effect of its request is as benign as suggested in the moving papers.” Id. B. Dr. Medvidovic’s July 2019 and December 2019 Reports After Finjan filed its request for relief from the SVK Contentions Order but before denial of that request in the BLF Contentions Order, Finjan served its expert reports on infringement of the ’633 Patent, including the July 11, 2019 report of Dr. Medvidovic. See Dkt. 312-1 at ¶ 7; see also Dkt. 400-8 (the “July 2019 Report”). Cisco filed a motion to strike portions of the July 2019 Report and other portions of Finjan’s expert reports on infringement. Dkt. 312. Cisco argued that the expert reports “contain multiple thousands of references to the very theories Finjan was seeking to add to its infringement contentions through its motion to amend, but was precluded from doing so” by the SVK and BLF infringement expert reports that Cisco sought to strike included and Id. at 4. Although the term appeared in the July 2019 Report (see Dkt. 400-8 at ¶¶ 635, 659, 660), Cisco did not specifically mention that term in its original motion to strike; as discussed below, was not one of the terms that Finjan unsuccessfully sought to add by way of motion to amend its contentions. See Dkt. 491-8. On November 12, 2019, Judge Freeman granted Cisco’s motion to strike portions of the July 2019 Report. Dkt. 397 (the “BLF Order re Motion to Strike”). Judge Freeman rejected as “meritless” Finjan’s argument that the SVK and BLF Contentions Orders did not forbid Finjan from using information learned in discovery to support its existing infringement contentions, stating that “Finjan was, of course, prohibited from including in its expert reports the theories it sought but failed to add to its infringement contentions by the SVK and BLF [Contentions] Orders.” Id. at 3. Judge Freeman also stated that “Finjan ‘may not use an expert report to introduce new infringement theories [or] new infringing instrumentalities’ and therefore is required to persuade the Court that the additional internal code names and components are ‘the identification of additional evidentiary proof’ and not ‘new theories’ of infringement.” Id. at 5 (quoting Finjan, Inc. v. Symantec Corp., No. 14CV02998HSGJSC, 2018 WL 620169, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 30, 2018)). Judge Freeman concluded that “Finjan’s experts were not permitted to use the internal code names and software components that Finjan sought and failed to add to its infringement contentions.” Id. at 6. Judge Freeman directed Finjan’s experts “to redraft their reports to remove the disallowed terminology and adhere their opinions to the disclosures in Finjan’s operative infringement contentions.” Id. Finjan subsequently sent Cisco the amended report of Dr. Medvidovic dated December 13, 2019. See Dkt. 492-1 at ¶ 4 and Ex. 3 (the “December 2019 Report”). C. Cisco’s Motion for Summary Judgment on the ’633 Patent Meanwhile, on October 22, 2019, Cisco filed a motion for summary judgment of non- infringement of the ’633 Patent. Dkt. 378. In both making and opposing Cisco’s motion for summary judgment, the parties relied on the July 2019 Report of Dr. Medvidovic. See Dkt. 378-1 Finjan relied on each of seven items to satisfy the mobile protection code (“MPC”) requirement in the asserted claim element 14(d) of the ’633 Patent: See Dkt. 400-4 at 14. At the summary judgment hearing on January 9, 2020, Cisco stated that the BLF Motion to Strike Order “struck [Finjan’s] expert reports” and “[s]o right now we have a summary judgement record where they are relying on struck expert reports, and they have done nothing to fix that summary judgment record.” Dkt. 419 at 27:22-28:1. Judge Freeman noted that “I and Judge van Keulen as well did not allow the use of these code names like this and there are others, but I allowed the reports to be modified to replace [them] with the terminology used in the infringement contentions. Id. at 47:12-15. Finjan responded that in December 2019, following the BLF Motion to Strike Order, it sent modified expert reports to Cisco. Id. at 49:24-50:7. According to Finjan, the December 2019 expert reports did “exactly what the judge ordered us to do, striking through the component names and then replacing it with … whatever names that were in the infringement contentions.” Id. at 50:3-7. But as Finjan explained, Cisco had taken the position that Finjan needed to “remove the functionality as well.” Id. at 50:13-16. Judge Freeman told Finjan’s counsel: So let me be clear, and I don’t have the paperwork in front of me, but Judge van Keulen did not allow the modification to the infringement contentions that you had suggested to her would replace certain alleged functionalities with their code names. And I agreed with that because you weren’t able to show me the swap out. And so that’s what I struck. I didn’t strike the expert’s opinions generally, it was I allowed the substitution. So this substitution needs to happen, and if you can’t agree on it, you will go back to her. Id. at 50:22-51:6. In response, Cisco pointed out that “ is not in their

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Finjan, LLC. v. Cisco Systems Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2020).

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