In Re: Papst Licensing Digital Camera Patent Litigation - Mdl 1880

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedOctober 8, 2013
DocketMisc. No. 2007-0493
StatusPublished

This text of In Re: Papst Licensing Digital Camera Patent Litigation - Mdl 1880 (In Re: Papst Licensing Digital Camera Patent Litigation - Mdl 1880) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re: Papst Licensing Digital Camera Patent Litigation - Mdl 1880, (D.D.C. 2013).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

__________________________________________ ) IN RE PAPST LICENSING GMBH & CO. KG ) LITIGATION ) ) Misc. Action No. 07-493 (RMC) This document relates to ) ) MDL No. 1880 Hewlett-Packard v. Papst 08-cv-865 1 ) ) ) __________________________________________)

MEMORANDUM OPINION RE: HEWLETT-PACKARD’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Papst Licensing GmbH & Co. KG, a German company, sues multiple

manufacturers of digital cameras for alleged infringement of two patents owned by Papst: U.S.

Patent Number 6,470,399 (399 Patent) and U.S. Patent Number 6,895,449 (449 Patent).

Generally, Papst contends that digital cameras are “interface devices” that infringe the Patents.

Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), one of the Camera Manufacturers who is a

party to a First Wave Case in this Multi District Litigation, 2 moves for summary judgment of

1 Hewlett-Packard v. Papst, 08-cv-865 (D.D.C.) was transferred here from the Northern District of California, where it was assigned case number 5:08-cv-1732-JW. 2 This Multi District Litigation currently consists of First and Second Wave Cases. The “First Wave Cases” are: Fujifilm Corp. v. Papst, 07-cv-1118; Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Papst, 07-cv-1222; Papst v. Olympus Corp., 07-cv-2086; Papst v. Samsung Techwin Co., 07-cv- 2088; Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Papst, 08-cv-865; and Papst v. Nikon Corp., 08-cv-985. The “Second Wave Cases” currently are: Papst v. Canon, 08-cv-1406 and Papst v. Sanyo, 09-cv- 530. The Camera Manufacturers who are parties to the First Wave Cases (sometimes referred to as the First Wave Camera Manufacturers) are: Fujifilm Corporation; Fujifilm U.S.A., Inc.; Fujifilm Japan; Panasonic Corporation (f/k/a as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.); Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.; Olympus Corporation; Olympus Imaging America Inc.; Samsung Techwin Co., Ltd.; Samsung Opto-Electronics America, Inc.; Panasonic Corporation of North America; JVC Company of America; Hewlett-Packard Company (HP); Nikon Corporation; and Nikon, Inc. The Second Wave Camera Manufacturers are Canon, Inc. and Canon USA, Inc. 1 noninfringement because, among other reasons, the Court already struck all of Papst’s

infringement contentions against products manufactured by HP. The motion for summary

judgment will be granted.

I. FACTS 3

A. The Invention

The invention at issue is a “Flexible Interface for Communication Between a Host

and an Analog I/O Device Connected to the Interface Regardless of the Type of the I/O Device.”

399 Patent, Title; 449 Patent, Title. Michael Tasler invented and patented the “interface device”

and later sold the Patents to Papst. The invention was never produced or used.

The “interface device” is designed to provide data transfer between a data

transmit/receive device and a computer without the need for special software; this is

accomplished by telling the computer that the interface device is a transmit/receive device

already known to the computer (and for which the computer already has drivers, i.e., software),

regardless of what kind of data transmit/receive device actually is attached to the interface

device. 399 Patent, Abstract; 449 Patent, Abstract; see also 399 Patent 5:67 & 6:1-22; 449 Patent

4:66-67 & 5:1-22. 4

The interface device according to the present invention therefore simulates, both in terms of hardware and software, the way in which a conventional input/output device functions, preferably that of a hard disk drive. As support for hard disks is implemented as

(collectively Canon) and Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Sanyo North America Corporation (collectively Sanyo). 3 This motion is one of eight filed by the Camera Manufacturers. In the interest of timely disposition, the Court does not recite the full background and assumes familiarity with its prior rulings. See, e.g., Claims Construction Op. (Claims Constr. Op.) [Dkt. 336]; Sanctions Op. [Dkt. 429]. 4 The Patents are cited by column number, then a colon, then the line number.

2 standard in all commercially available host systems, the simulation of a hard disk, for example, can provide host device-independent use. The interface device according to the present invention therefore no longer communicates with the host device or computer by means of a specially designed driver but by means of a program which is present in the BIOS system (Basic Input/Output System) and is normally precisely matched to the specific computer system on which it is installed, or by means of a specific program for the multi-purpose interface. 399 Patent 5:5-20; 449 Patent 4:9-24 (same). By directing the computer to communicate using

customary software already in the computer, the interface device fulfills its purpose––to provide

“communication between a host device and a data transmit/receive device whose use is host

device-independent and which delivers a high data transfer rate.” 399 Patent 3:24-27; 449 Patent

3:20-23 (same). In other words, the invention seeks to capitalize on software customarily found

in a computer to allow communication with various data transmit/receive devices.

The 449 Patent is a continuation or divisional patent that is quite similar to the

399 Patent. The Patents share the same block diagram drawings, Figures 1 and 2. See, e.g., 399

Patent 9:15-16 (“Figure 2 shows a detailed block diagram of an interface device, according to the

present invention”); 449 Patent 8:15-16 (same). The 399 and 449 Patents also share much of the

same specification. Even so, the 449 Patent covers other aspects of the invention; for example,

the 449 Patent omits references to analog-to-digital data conversion. Compare 399 Patent 12:54-

60 with 449 Patent 11:57-58.

Pursuant to Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370 (1996), the

Court construed the contested claims of the 399 and 449 Patents. 5 See Claims Constr. Op. [Dkt.

5 Markman requires a district court to construe the contested claims of the patents before a jury can determine whether the accused products infringe. In claims construction, a court must interpret the words of each contested claim from the perspective of one skilled in the art at the time of invention, in light of the patent documents and the prosecution history. Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2005).

3 336]; Order [Dkt. 337]. As relevant here, the Court interpreted the “second connecting device”

limitation in the 399 Patent to mean “a physical plug or socket for permitting a user readily to

attach and detach the interface device with a plurality of dissimilar data transmit/receive devices,

including a sampling circuit for sampling the analog data provided by the data transmit/receive

device and an analog-to-digital converter for converting data sampled by the sampling circuit

into digital data.” Claims Constr. Op. [Dkt. 336] at 38-40. In the 449 Patent, the Court held that

“second connecting device” means “a physical plug or socket for permitting a user readily to

attach and detach the interface device with a plurality of dissimilar data transmit/receive

devices.” Id.

B. HP and the HP Accused Cameras

In its Final Infringement Contentions, Papst accused the First and Second Wave

Camera Manufacturers of infringement. See generally Final Infringement Contentions [Dkt.

416] (FICs).

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