N5 Technologies LLC v. Capital One N.A.

22 F. Supp. 3d 572, 2013 WL 5876978, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155746
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedOctober 29, 2013
DocketCase No. 1:13-cv-386
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 22 F. Supp. 3d 572 (N5 Technologies LLC v. Capital One N.A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
N5 Technologies LLC v. Capital One N.A., 22 F. Supp. 3d 572, 2013 WL 5876978, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155746 (E.D. Va. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

T.S. ELLIS, III, District Judge.

In this patent infringement case, N5 Technologies LLC (“N5”), the owner of [576]*576U.S. Patent No. 7,197,297 (“the '297 patent”), sues defendants Capital One Bank (USA) N.A., Capital One Services LLC, and Capital One N.A. for direct infringement and for inducing infringement of the '297 patent, which purports to cover a specific method of authenticating mobile station users to access private data via sending text messages to a private server. As is typical in a patent infringement suit, the parties dispute the meaning of several material claim terms and phrases, thereby requiring Markman1 claim construction.

Following full briefing and oral argument on the claim term disputes, an Order issued on August 16, 2013 selling forth, for reasons stated from the bench, the claim construction determinations. N5 Techs. v. Capital One, 1:13-cv-386 (E.D.Va., Aug. 16, 2013) (Order); N5 Techs. v. Capital One, 1:13-cv-386 (E.D.Va., Aug. 16, 2013) (Tr.). Thereafter, on September 27.2013. plaintiffs motion for reconsideration of the claim construction determination was denied. N5 Techs. v. Capital One, 1:13-cv-386 (E.D.Va., Sept. 27, 2013) (Order). This memorandum opinion records the reasoning in support of the claim construction determinations.

I.

Plaintiff N5, a Virginia limited liability company with its principal place of business in Manassas, Virginia, is the sole owner of the '297 patent, issued in 2007, titled “Authentication Method for Enabling a User of a Mobile Station to Access to Private Data or Services.” N5, in the current vernacular, is a non-practicing entity claiming, without opposition, to own all right, title, and interest in the '297 patent.2

Defendants Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A. are federally-chartered banking institutions with their principal places of business in McLean, Virginia. Defendant Capital One Services, LLC is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in McLean, Virginia. Capital One, N.A., Capital One Bank (USA), N.A.,-and Capital One Services, LLC are sued collectively for infringement and are referred to collectively herein as “defendants.”

The '297 patent, which consists of 18 claims, recites a method for authenticating the user of a mobile station, i.e. a cell phone, to allow that user to access private information stored on a private server by sending a text message request from the user’s mobile station. Plaintiff alleges that defendants’ mobile banking service infringes on the claimed method of the '297 patent. Defendants’ .mobile banking service allows customers to access account information, such as their balance or the last transaction posted to their account, by sending a text message from an authenticated mobile station. On October 25, 2012, plaintiff filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging that defendants’ mobile banking services infringe independent Claim 1, and dependent claims 2, 3,4, 6, 8, 9, and 10 of the '297 patent. On March 25, 2013, the case was transferred to this district.

The sole independent claim and the claim in which all disputed claim terms appear is Claim 1, which “provides a method for accessing private data or services [577]*577over a public network including the step of authenticating a user of a mobile station [ ] for accessing to private data/serviees.” '297 Patent, Col. 1, 11. 45-48. Claim 1 reads as follows:

1. Method for accessing private data or services from a mobile, station over a public network including the step of authenticating a user of the mobile station for accessing to private data/services, comprising the steps of:
composing a text-based request message on the mobile station using a standard public messaging protocol, said message including a request for private data, and sending said request message to a private server (MG, PS) offering the access to said private data/services, via telephone network, checking the authenticity of the user of the mobile station based on the request message received by the server,
if the authenticity of the user of the mobile station is confirmed, composing a text-based response message using a standard public text messaging protocol, the response message including the requested private data/services of the private server, and sending back to the mobile station said text-based response message, via the telephone network,
wherein the request message additionally includes a user unique identifier, and is received by the private server with an appended user mobile station number, wherein the authenticity checking performed by the private server comprises the steps of:
checking whether the user unique identifier is stored in a private directory database, and
checking whether the appended user mobile station number matches with the user mobile station number allocated to the user unique identifier stored in the private directory database;
and wherein, if the user authenticity is confirmed, an interaction between the private server and the mobile station is limited to the exchange of the text-based request message and the text-based response; and repeating the recited steps for any further interaction between the private server and the mobile station.

The parties dispute the meaning of two claim terms and the order in which certain steps are to foe performed. The disputed portions of Claim 1, in bold above, are:

(i) “user unique identifier;”
(ii) “checking the authenticity of the user;” and
(iii) the order for executing the steps of “checking whether the user unique identifier is stored in a private directory database” and “checking whether the appended user mobile station number matches with the user mobile station number allocated to the user unique identifier stored in the private directory database.”

II.

Over the' nearly two decades since Markman, the elucidation of claim construction principles has become well-plowed ground, although the plowed furrows have not always been straight lines. Nonetheless, the claim construction principles pertinent here are now well-settled. They are as follows:

First, and importantly, “the claim construction analysis must begin and remain centered on the claim language itself’ because a “bedrock principle” of patent law is that “the claims of a patent define the invention to which the patentee [578]*578is entitled the right to exclude.” Innova/Pure Water, Inc. v. Safari Water Filtration Sys., Inc., 381 F.3d 1111, 1115-16 (Fed.Cir.2004). Accordingly, a court must “look to the words themselves ... to define the scope of the patented invention.” Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, 90 F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed.Cir.1996). And the “words of a claim are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning.” Phillips v. AWH Corp.,

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Related

N5 Technologies LLC v. Capital One N.A.
56 F. Supp. 3d 755 (E.D. Virginia, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
22 F. Supp. 3d 572, 2013 WL 5876978, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/n5-technologies-llc-v-capital-one-na-vaed-2013.