Finjan, LLC v. Qualys Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided June 11, 2020·No. 4:18-cv-07229·Unknown

Opinion

FINJAN, INC. CASE NO. 4:18-cv-07229-YGR

Plaintiff, CLAIM CONSTRUCTION ORDER vs. Re: Dkt. Nos. 42, 65 Defendant.

Plaintiff Finjan, Inc. (“Finjan”) brings this patent infringement action against Defendant Qualys Inc. (“Qualys”), alleging that Qualys infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 8,677,494 (the “’494 Patent”). 6,154,844 (the “’844 Patent”), 8,141,154 (the “’154 Patent”), 6,965,968 (the “’968 Patent”), 7,418,731 (the “’731 Patent”), 7,975,305 (the “’305 Patent), and 8,225,408 (the “’408 Patent”). Now before the Court are the parties’ claim construction disputes. A technology tutorial was held on May 22, 2020. Having carefully considered the papers submitted, the parties’ arguments presented at the May 27, 2020 claim construction hearing, and the pleadings in this action, and for the reasons set forth below, the Court hereby adopts the constructions set forth herein. Finjan asserts seven patents. Although each patent has different claims and specification, several of the patents are related. Specifically, the ’844, ’731, ’305, ’408, ’494 Patents are continuations-in-part of the same parent application: No. 08/694,388.1 All of the patents relate 1 generally to computer network security, most commonly at the network gateway. (See ’494 Patent 2 at 1:60-63; ’844 Patent at 1:23-26; ’154 Patent at 1:7-9; °968 Patent at 1:63-67, 2:12-16; °731 3 Patent at 1:20-21; °305 Patent at 1:24-25; °408 Patent at 1:19-20.) 4 Figure | of the ’408 Patent illustrates the basic architecture common to several patents 5 below. A network gateway (or “gateway computer”) “acts as a conduit for content from the 6 Internet entering into a corporate intranet, and for content from the corporate intranet exiting to the 7 Internet.” (408 Patent at 3:62-67.) The gateway contains a scanner that inspects incoming 8 content to identify malicious code (e.g., viruses). Ud. at 4:54-56.) The scanner uses security 9 policies to decide whether to block incoming content—for example, blocking “severely malicious” 10 content but allowing “less malicious” content. (Ud. at 4:53-5:2.) The intranet is also coupled to a 11 cache that stores content to avoid re-retrieval and re-scanning. (Ud. at 5:10-15.) The Court a 12 addresses patent-specific implementations in the body of this Order.

a NETWORK GATEWAY 150 110 v 14 PRE-SCANNER PrESCAMER CONTENT SCANNER & 17

1g 140 20 120 120 21 22 23 120 oN 120 24 25 26 27 28 1282, 1293 (Fed. Cir. 2005), abrogated on other grounds as stated in IRIS Corp. v. Japan Airlines Corp., 769 F.3d 1359, 1361 n.1 (Fed. Cir. 2014)

II. LEGAL PRINCIPLES Claim construction is a question of law for the court. Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370, 384 (1996). “The purpose of claim construction is to determine the meaning and scope of the patent claims asserted to be infringed.” O2 Micro Int’l Ltd. v. Beyond Innovation Tech. Co., 521 F.3d 1351, 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2008). “When the parties raise an actual dispute regarding the proper scope of the[] claims, the court, not the jury, must resolve the dispute.” Id. However, claim construction needs only “resolve the controversy”; it is not “an obligatory exercise in redundancy” where no dispute exists. See id. at 1361-62; U.S. Surgical Corp. v. Ethicon, Inc., 103 F.3d 1554, 1568 (Fed. Cir. 1997). A. The Ordinary Meaning Construction Claim terms are generally given the “ordinary and customary meaning” that they would have to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312-13 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc). The ordinary and customary meaning is not the meaning of the claim term in the abstract. Id. at 1321. Rather, it is “the meaning to the ordinary artisan after reading the entire patent.” Id.; see also Trs. of Columbia U. v. Symantec Corp., 811 F.3d 1359, 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (“The only meaning that matters in claim construction is the meaning in the context of the patent.”). To determine the ordinary meaning, the court examines the claims, specification, and prosecution history of the patent, which form the “intrinsic evidence” for claim construction. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1313; Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, Inc., 90 F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed. Cir. 1996). “[T]he context in which a term is used in the asserted claim can be highly instructive.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1314. Additionally, “[d]ifferences among claims can also be a useful guide in understanding the meaning of particular claim terms.” Id. However, a person of ordinary skill in the art is “deemed to read the claim term not only in the context of the particular claim in which the disputed term appears, but in the context of the entire patent, including the specification.” Id. at 1313. The specification “is always highly relevant to the claim construction analysis” and usually “dispositive.” Id. at 1315 (quoting Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1582). Nevertheless, it is improper to limit the claimed invention to the preferred embodiments or to import limitations from the specification unless the patentee has demonstrated a clear intent to limit claim scope. Martek Biosci. Corp. v. Nutrinova, Inc., 579 F.3d 1363, 1380-81 (Fed. Cir. 2009). In addition to the claims and specification, the prosecution history may be used “to provide[] evidence of how the PTO and the inventor understood the patent.” Philips, 415 F.3d. at 1317. “Any explanation, elaboration, or qualification presented by the inventor during patent examination is relevant, for the role of claim construction is to ‘capture the scope of the actual invention’ that is disclosed, described and patented.” Fenner Inv., Ltd. v. Cellco P’ship, 778 F.3d 1320, 1323 (Fed. Cir. 2015). Finally, a court may consider extrinsic evidence—such as dictionaries, inventor testimony, and expert opinion—if it is helpful. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1319. However, extrinsic evidence “is unlikely to result in a reliable interpretation of patent claim scope unless considered in the context of the intrinsic evidence.” Id. There are two exceptions to the ordinary meaning construction: “1) when a patentee sets out a definition and acts as his own lexicographer,” and “2) when the patentee disavows the full scope of a claim term either in the specification or during prosecution.” Thorner v. Sony Comp. Entm’t Am. LLC, 669 F.3d 1362, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (citing Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1580). To act as a lexicographer, the patentee “must ‘clearly set forth a definition of the disputed claim term’ other than its plain and ordinary meaning.” Id. (quoting CCS Fitness, Inc. v. Brunswick Corp., 288 F.3d 1359, 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2002)). To disavow claim scope, the specification or prosecution history must “make[] clear that the invention does not include a particular feature” even though the language of the claims “might be considered broad enough to encompass the feature in question.” Id. at 1366 (quoting SciMed Life Sys., Inc. v. Adv. Cardiovascular Sys., Inc., 242 F.3d 1337, 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2001)). B. Means-Plus-Function

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

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