TomTom, Inc. v. AOT Systems GmbH

17 F. Supp. 3d 545, 2014 WL 1513262, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52739
District Court, E.D. Virginia·Decided April 15, 2014·No. Case No. 1:12CV528·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

T.S. ELLIS, III, District Judge.

On February 25, 2014, a Memorandum Opinion and Order issued in this patent infringement case construing nine disputed claim terms of U.S. Patent No. 6,356,836 (“the '836 patent”). TomTom, Inc. v. AOT Systems GmbH, et al., 2014 WL 792031 (E.D.Va. Feb. 25, 2014) (Memorandum Opinion). Defendant Michael Adolph (“Dr. Adolph”) now seeks reconsideration of the portion of the Memorandum Opinion and Order construing two particular disputed claim terms and phrases: (1) “node” and (2) “destination tracking system of at least one mobile unit.” For the following reasons, Dr. Adolph’s motion for reconsideration must be denied.

I.

Dr. Adolph moves for reconsideration under Rule 54(b), Fed.R.Civ.P., which governs reconsideration of interlocutory motions. Under this rule, a district court “retains the power to reconsider and modify its interlocutory orders ... at any time prior to final judgment.” Am. Canoe Ass’n v. Murphy Farms, Inc., 326 F.3d 505, 514-15 (4th Cir.2003). The resolution of motions to reconsider pursuant to Rule 54(b) is “committed to the discretion of the district court,” which may be exercised “as justice requires.” Id. at 515. The Fourth Circuit has made clear that the standards governing reconsideration of final judgments are not determinative of a Rule 54(b) motion,1 but some courts have appropriately considered those factors in guiding the exercise of their discretion under Rule 54(b).2 Thus, these courts generally do not depart from a previous ruling unless “(1) a subsequent trial produces substantially different evidence, (2) controlling authority has since made a contrary decision of law applicable to the issue, or (3) the prior decision was clearly erroneous and would work manifest injustice.” Am. Canoe Ass’n, 326 F.3d at 515 (quoting Sejman v. Warner-Lambert Co., Inc., 845 F.2d 66, 69 (4th Cir.1988)). Such problems “rarely arise and the motion to reconsider should be equally rare.” Above the Belt, Inc. v. Mel Bohannan Roofing, Inc., 99 F.R.D. 99, 101 (E.D.Va.1983). Motions to reconsider asking a court to “rethink what the Court had already thought through— rightly or wrongly” should not be granted. Id.

Here, Dr. Adolph has failed to identify any change in the applicable law or pertinent facts since entry of the Memorandum Opinion and Order construing the nine disputed claim terms. Put simply, Dr. Adolph disagrees with the current claim construction and asks for reconsideration of two terms based on new arguments that Dr. Adolph could have presented during the claim construction phase of the pro[547] ceedings, but chose not to do so. In his original claim construction brief, Dr. Adolph argued that none of the nine disputed claim terms or phrases needed to be construed and that each claim term or phrase should be given its ordinary meaning. In so doing, Dr. Adolph took a risk during the claim construction phase by offering no proposed definition for any of the disputed claim terms, and this gambit failed, as he lost. Yet, Dr. Adolph now asks for a “do-over” of claim construction and offers new constructions of the disputed terms and phrases that he chose not to offer in his original claim construction briefs based on arguments that he failed to raise in these briefs. The failure to propose claim constructions and the failure to raise these arguments during the claim construction briefing and argument does not fit within any of the permissible grounds for motions for filing a motion for reconsideration. Nonetheless, as a matter of grace, and in the interest of ensuring that the claim constructions set forth in the Memorandum Opinion and Order are correct, the merits of Dr. Adolph’s motion for reconsideration will be addressed.

II.

A.

In the Memorandum Opinion construing the disputed claim terms at issue in this case, the term “node” was construed to mean “intersection, origin, destination, or point at which the vehicle changes direction by more than a predetermined value in a grid or road network.” TomTom, Inc., 2014 WL 792031 at *15. This definition was based on the specification, which described three different types of nodes: (1) “nodes at the intersection of sections,” Col. 10, 11. 17-18; (2) “nodes where the vehicle direction changes by more than a given predetermined value,” Col. 10, 11. 16-17; and (3) “origin and/or destination nodes,” Col. 12,1. 21.

Dr. Adolph seeks reconsideration of this construction of “node” for two reasons: (1) that the primary embodiment of the invention is rendered inoperable if the invention can only record nodes that are restricted to a known grid or road network, and (2) that both the claim language and the specification include other meanings of “node” not included in the Court’s current claim construction. Thus, Dr. Adolph argues on reconsideration, for the first time, that “node” should be construed as “a geographic location, which is associated with an intersection, origin, destination, or point at which the vehicle changes direction by more than a predetermined value, in a grid -or-road- network or which is obtained a predetermined time interval, or after a certain distance has been covered.” 3

Dr. Adolph’s argument is unpersuasive. First, it is unnecessary to add “a geographic location” to the definition of “node,” because the latter part of claim 1 states that “to each node P¡ geographical coordinates X¡ and y¡ are assigned.” '836 patent, Col. 17, 11. 42-44. Thus, it is clear from the existing language of the claim that a “node” has a geographic location, and therefore, it is unnecessary to add to the definition of “node” the phrase “a geographic location.”

Second, Dr. Adolph also argues that the phrase “in a grid or road network” must be removed from the definition of “node” because it renders the invention inoperable. This argument is also unpersuasive. To begin with, Dr. Adolph’s argument that [548] the Court’s construction of “node” renders the invention inoperable is based on the words — “existing” and “known” — that are not in the Court’s definition of “node,” but are simply added by Dr. Adolph without explanation. In his brief, Dr. Adolph states that his invention collects data “without regard for whether the newly collected points are located in an existing grid or road network” (emphasis added). His brief further states that restricting the phrase “node” to “known grid or road network[s] ... completely defeats one of the primary purposes and embodiments of the invention, which is to enable users to create new digital road data and traffic data while they drive” (emphasis added). Yet, as noted, neither the word “known” nor the word “existing” is currently in the Court’s definition of “node.” Thus, Dr. Adolph’s claim that the Court’s construction of “node” renders the invention inoperable is based on a construction of Dr. Adolph’s creation.

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TomTom, Inc. v. AOT Systems GmbH, 17 F. Supp. 3d 545, 2014 WL 1513262, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52739 (E.D. Va. 2014).

17 F. Supp. 3d 545 (TomTom, Inc. v. AOT Systems GmbH) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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