Impact Engine, Inc. v. Google LLC

District Court, S.D. California·Decided November 10, 2021·No. 3:19-cv-01301·Unknown

Opinion

IMPACT ENGINE, INC., Case No.: 19-CV-1301-CAB-DEB

Plaintiff, Order on Motion to Dismiss Pursuant v. to Rule 12(c) for Patent Ineligibility

Defendant.

Plaintiff Impact Engine, Inc. alleges that defendant Google LLC infringes eight United States patents owned by Impact Engine. The asserted patents1 are all continuations of U.S. Patent No. 7,870,497 [Doc. No. 1-3] 2, filed April 13, 2006, and have a common specification. Before the Court is Google’s motion to dismiss certain of the asserted claims, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c), on the basis that they are ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101. [Doc. No. 225.] The matter has been fully briefed and the Court finds the motion suitable for determination on the papers submitted and without oral

1 The following patents are at issue in this litigation: U.S. Patent Nos. 7,870,497; 8,356,253; 8,930,832; 9,361,632; 9,805,393; 10,068,253; 10,565,618; and 10,572,898. [Doc. Nos. 1-3 to 1-8, 53-14 and 53-15, respectively.] argument in accordance with Civil Local Rule 7.1(d)(1). For the reasons set forth below, the motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. I. Procedural Background Google previously sought to dismiss Impact Engine’s complaint under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) based on patent ineligibility at the start of this litigation. [Doc. No. 21.] Google argued that all the asserted patents claim ineligible subject matter and that Claim 1 of the ‘497 patent was representative of all the claims of all the patents asserted by Impact Engine. The Court denied the motion, finding that Google did not establish that Claim 1 of the ‘497 patent was representative. Further, based only on consideration of the complaint, the patent and its history, the Court found it could not conclude that Claim 1 of the ‘497 patent was directed at an abstract idea. [Doc. No. 41 at 2.] However, Google was not precluded from reasserting the defense of patent ineligibility as to one or more of the patents’ claims if claim construction or further evidence beyond the pleadings supported such a challenge in the future. [Id.] Following the issuance of the Court’s initial Claim Construction Order [Doc. No. 148], Google renewed its motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c) based on patent ineligibility, this time asserting that Claims 1, 3, and 5 of U.S. Patent No. 8,356,253 (“the ‘6253 patent”) were representative of all the claims at issue in the litigation. [Doc. No. 157.] At the same time, Google also filed a motion for additional construction of claim terms that are limitations in the representative claims of the ‘6253 patent. [Doc. No. 160.] Because Google’s challenge to the patentability of the claims of the ‘6253 patent was premised in part on claim constructions that the Court did not adopt [Doc. No. 205], the Court denied the motion. [Doc. No. 206.] Google’s present motion to dismiss is directed specifically at Claim 1 of the ‘497 patent, Claims 14, 16 and 233 of the ‘618 patent, and Claim 30 of the ‘898 patent. Google brings the motion pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c) and argues these specific claims, as construed by the Court and in consideration of the patent specification, are directed at an abstract idea and do not include additional elements that transform the claims into patent- eligible subject matter. Impact Engine opposes Google’s present motion, in part arguing it is an untimely motion for reconsideration of its previous motions challenging the validity of Impact Engine’s patents based on section 101. The Court disagrees. Each motion brought by Google was distinct and separate. This motion is neither untimely nor a request for the Court to reconsider a prior ruling. The Court therefore turns to the merits of Google’s motion. II. Legal Standard Under Rule 12(c), judgment may be granted if the movant clearly establishes that no material issue of fact remains to be resolved and that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Whether a claim is drawn to patent-eligible subject matter under section 101 is ultimately an issue of law that may be decided on a Rule 12(c) motion under certain circumstances. Generally, the court may not consider matters outside the pleadings without converting a Rule 12(c) motion to a summary judgment motion under Rule 56. However, because claim construction is a question of law, a court “may take notice of and rely on its claim construction opinion without converting [a 12(c)] motion into a motion for summary judgment.” Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 235 F. Supp. 3d 577, 588 (D. Del. 2016). Section 101 defines patent-eligible subject as “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.” 35 U.S.C. §101. However, laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not eligible for patenting. Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208, 216 (2014). When a patent claim is alleged to involve one of these three types of subject matter, the court is to apply a two-step test for examining patent eligibility. Id. 573 U.S. at 217-18. The court must “distinguish between patents that claim the ‘buildin[g] block[s]’ of human ingenuity and those that integrate the building blocks into something more,” to protect against “disproportionately tying up the use of the underlying ideas.” Id. at 217. The first step of the Alice test requires a court to determine whether the claim at issue is directed to a patent-ineligible concept, in this case an abstract idea. Id. at 218. The claim is considered in its entirety to ascertain whether its character as a whole is directed to excluded subject matter. Internet Pats. Corp. v. Active Network Inc., 790 F.3d 1343, 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2015). If so, the second step of the Alice test requires the court to examine the elements of the claim both individually and as an ordered combination to determine whether it contains an inventive concept sufficient to transform the claimed abstract idea into a patent-eligible application. Alice, 573 U.S. at 221. This inventive concept must do more than simply recite “well-understood, routine, conventional activities” previously known to the industry. Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs, Inc., 566 U.S. 66, 79-80 (2012). III. Summary of the Invention and Claim Construction The patents at-issue are directed at a Multimedia Communications System and Method for creating, editing, sharing, and distributing high-quality, media-rich web-based communications. [Doc. No. 1-3 at 2 (Abstract).] The systems and methods disclosed are intended to replace the “prior art” practice of contracting a professional graphic design or advertising agency to create works that can be distributed electronically in various formats such as a banner advertisement, website or email. Through the system, the user selects and creates the communication content, edits it, and distributes the communication in a selected format to a selected audience over the Internet. [Id. at Col. 1:12-26.] Broadly, the patents describe a system in which a client user interacts through a graphical user interface with the system components located on a server connected over the I

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Impact Engine, Inc. v. Google LLC, (S.D. Cal. 2021).

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