Safeflight, Inc. v. CHELTON FLIGHT SYSTEMS, INC.

543 F. Supp. 2d 779, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12457, 2008 WL 482877
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedFebruary 20, 2008
Docket5.05CV2622
StatusPublished

This text of 543 F. Supp. 2d 779 (Safeflight, Inc. v. CHELTON FLIGHT SYSTEMS, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Safeflight, Inc. v. CHELTON FLIGHT SYSTEMS, INC., 543 F. Supp. 2d 779, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12457, 2008 WL 482877 (N.D. Ohio 2008).

Opinion

ORDER

JOHN R. ADAMS, District Judge.

In this patent case, Plaintiff Safeflight, Inc. (“Safeflight”) alleges that Defendant Chelton Flight Systems, Inc. (“Chelton”) infringed its patent, U.S. Patent Number 5,343,395 (“'395 patent”). Chelton raises in its answer, among others, the affirmative defense of invalidity. Chelton now moves this Court for summary judgment claiming that the '395 patent is invalid based on 35 U.S.C. §§ 102(b) and (g) and 103 due to prior art developed by NASA and printed for public use. Chelton alternatively argues that claims 2 and 13 of the '395 patent are invalid as inoperative, non-enabled, or indefinite under 35 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 112. Safeflight has filed an Opposition to the Motion to which Chelton filed a Reply. The Court held a hearing on the Motion on October 12, 2007. Having considered the Motion, Response and Reply thereto, pleadings, exhibits, argument and applicable law the Court finds that summary judgment for Chelton is proper and is therefore GRANTED.

FACTS

The ABSTRACT of the '395 patent describes the invention:

An aircraft navigational facilitation system and method of use thereof operates in conjunction with conventional apparatus which provides aircraft current situational information. The system includes a memory for storing runway and landing information for each of a plurality runways. An input device, such as a keyboard, is provided for selecting a destination runway. The system further includes a video display device which simulates the view from a cockpit of the aircraft, with the view including the destination runway. The video display device is driven by a processor which uses the current situational information and the runway information for periodically generating display signals for the video display device. The display signals cause the video display to provide an updated and scaled simulated three dimensional view of a perimeter of the destination runway from a perspective of the cockpit of the aircraft. The video display device also provides further information including runway identification information, runway centerline, and an indication of a projected touch[-]down point of the aircraft relative to the perimeter of the destination runway.

Safeflight’s Complaint, Exhibit A, p. 1. In more general terms, the '395 patent is a video display system which assists a pilot in landing an aircraft onto a variety of pre-programmed airport runways. Once the pilot uses the keyboard to select from a number of pre-programmed runways, the system provides a three-dimensional view, from the pilot’s perspective, of the runway (including identification information and a centerline) and a projected touch-down point based on the aircraft’s current situational information.

In its Motion, Chelton alleges that Sa-feflight’s '395 patent is no more than a simplified version of pilot display formats developed by NASA and printed for public use more than 10 years prior to the patent application. In support of its argument, Chelton presents declarations from former NASA scientists George Steinmetz (“Steinmetz”) and Samuel A. Morello (“Morello”); a paper presented in St. Louis, Missouri titled Have We Overlooked the Pilot’s Role in an Automated Flight Deck?, written by Steinmetz, L.H. *783 Person (“Person”), and Morello — published by NASA for use in the public domain in 1981; a paper presented at the Aircraft Safety and Operating Problems Conference, 18-20 October 1976, titled Review of Operational Aspects of Initial Experiments Utilizing the U.S. MLS, written by Thomas M. Walsh, Morello, and John P. Reeder — published by NASA; Flight-Test Evaluation of Two Electronic Display Formats for Approach to Landing Under Instrument Conditions, written by Morello, Charles E. Knox (“Knox”), and Steinmetz — published by NASA in December 1977; A Piloted-Simulation Evaluation of Two Electronic Display Formats for Approach and Landing, written by Steinmetz, Morello, Knox, and Person — published by NASA in April 1976; SST Technology Follow-On Program-Phase 2. ADEDS Functional/Software Requirements written by A.J. Martin and D.H. Cosley for Boeing Commercial Airplane Co., Seattle, WA in December 1973-unclassifíed and approved for public release; FAR/AIM 2002 by the U.S. Department of Transportation in July 2001; the '395 patent; and Chapter 3-1 titled “Electronic Flight Display Research” from the book Airborne Trailblazer: two decades with NASA Langley’s 737 flying laboratory written by Lane E. Wallace — published by NASA in 1994.

In support of its Response, Safeflight provided: various deposition pages from Steinmetz, Morello, Richard Price, and Gordon Pratt; a Corporate Management Profile for, among others, Carl O. Webb, John S. Barber, and William A. Mathieu; and a group of documents which include a May 28, 1999 news release from the Research Triangle Institute titled, “Synthetic Vision Could Help General Aviation Pilots Steer Clear of Fatalities,” a news release from http://www.avidyne.com/Synthetic Vi-sionPR.html titled “NASA Selects Avidyne and Avrotec to Lead Synthetic Vision Program,” an advertisement from AirCell, an article titled “Synthetic Vision Could Help General Aviation Pilots Steer Clear of Fatalities,” and a press release from May 1999 titled “NASA Award Granted to RTI/Archangel Team — Synthetic Vision Could Help Pilots Steer Clear of Fatalities.”

Finally, attached to the Reply Brief for support, Chelton provided various pages from the depositions of Steinmetz and Earl C. Peterson III.

Chelton objects to Safeflight’s Exhibit E titled “Corporate Management Profile” for lack of foundation and authenticity. This Court agrees and will not consider Exhibit E attached to Safeflight’s Response in consideration of the Motion. Additionally, Sa-feflight submitted exhibits at the hearing held on October 12, 2007. Chelton, however, objected to those exhibits as they were not attached to Safeflight’s opposition to the motion for summary judgment. The Court agreed and did not admit the proposed exhibits for consideration on the motion for summary judgment.

APPLICABLE LAW

Summary Judgment is appropriate only when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). The moving party must demonstrate to the court through reference to pleadings and discovery responses the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp., 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548.

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543 F. Supp. 2d 779, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12457, 2008 WL 482877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/safeflight-inc-v-chelton-flight-systems-inc-ohnd-2008.