Orcinus Holdings, LLC v. Synchronoss Techs., Inc.

379 F. Supp. 3d 857
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedApril 4, 2019
DocketCase No. 18-CV-06199-LHK
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 379 F. Supp. 3d 857 (Orcinus Holdings, LLC v. Synchronoss Techs., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Orcinus Holdings, LLC v. Synchronoss Techs., Inc., 379 F. Supp. 3d 857 (N.D. Cal. 2019).

Opinion

LUCY H. KOH, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Orcinus Holdings, LLC filed a patent infringement suit against Defendant Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant infringes claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,567,541 ("the '541 Patent"). Before the Court is Defendant's motion to dismiss, which contends that the claims of the '541 Patent fail to recite patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. ECF No. 27. Having considered the submissions of the parties, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court GRANTS Defendant's motion to dismiss the '541 Patent claims.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

1. The Parties and Technology at Issue

Plaintiff, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dropbox Inc. ("Dropbox"), is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California. ECF No. 1 (complaint, or "Compl.") at ¶ 1. Dropbox was founded in June 2007, and launched "as a simple way for people to access their files wherever they are and share them easily." Id. at ¶ 9.

Defendant is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and conducts business from a permanent physical location in San Jose, California. Id. at ¶¶ 2, 5. Defendant sells its "Personal Cloud" product "as a white-label data backup and transfer solution to network operators or service providers, such as Verizon." Id. at ¶ 16. Plaintiff alleges that the "Personal Cloud" product, as well as other Synchronoss Cloud products, infringe the '541 Patent. The Court next summarizes the Patent.

2. The '541 Patent

The '541 Patent is entitled "System and Method for Personal Data Backup for Mobile Customer Premises Equipment." '541 Patent at front page. It was filed on October *86218, 2005, and issued on July 28, 2009. Id.

The claims of the '541 Patent generally relate to backing up data from a "customer premises equipment" ("CPE") such as "cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), iPods™, and MP3™ digital recorders." Id. at 2:64-66. More specifically, the '541 Patent is directed to uploading and downloading data from a CPE to a server by way of a mobile network. Id. at 3:56-4:4, 5:19-20. The Court first discusses the aspect of uploading data from a CPE to a server, then retrieving data from the server to the CPE.

Assume the CPE is a cellphone. First, either the cellphone or the server initiates the backup process in response to an elapsed time. Id. at 3:57-59. In other words, the backup process is on a timer, and once enough time has elapsed for a predetermined time interval, the server initiates the backup process. In one embodiment, the server initiates the backup process by generating an update request signal. Id. at 3:61-62. "This signal may also indicate the type of data requested, including a full backup of all data, or only the backup of changed data...." Id. at 3:63-65. A switch, which is an access point to a mobile network, then forwards the signal to the cellphone. Id. at 3:2-3, 4:1. The backup data is "structured by tagging required data in accordance with the data type. XML, html, or other methods ... may be used to create the structured data." Id. at 4:10-13. The cellphone then transmits the backup data across the mobile network to the switch. Id. at 4:21 *863-23. Once the data transfer process has transferred all of the relevant data from the cellphone to the switch, which then transfers the data to the server, the server terminates the data transfer. Id. at 4:38-45. At that point, the server restarts the timer for the predetermined time interval at which updates take place. Id. at 4:45-47.

Figure 1 exemplifies uploading data from a CPE to a server. In response to an elapsed time signal (item 105) that signals the beginning of a backup cycle, the server (item 104) generates an update request signal (item 106).

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Bluebook (online)
379 F. Supp. 3d 857, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orcinus-holdings-llc-v-synchronoss-techs-inc-cand-2019.