Universal Electronics, Inc. v. Roku, Inc.

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit·Decided August 28, 2023·No. 21-2128·Unpublished

Opinion

Case: 21-2128 Document: 37 Page: 1 Filed: 08/28/2023

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS, INC., Appellant

v.

ROKU, INC., Appellee ______________________

2021-2128, 2021-2129 ______________________

Appeals from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Nos. IPR2019- 01620, IPR2019-01621. ______________________

Decided: August 28, 2023 ______________________

MICHAEL ANTHONY NICODEMA, Greenberg Traurig LLP, West Palm Beach, FL, argued for appellant. Also rep- resented by BENJAMIN GILFORD, JAMES J. LUKAS, JR., Chi- cago, IL.

DEBRA JANECE MCCOMAS, Haynes & Boone, LLP, Dal- las, TX, argued for appellee. Also represented by RAGHAV BAJAJ, DAVID W. O'BRIEN, Austin, TX; JONATHAN R. BOWSER, ANGELA M. OLIVER, Washington, DC. ______________________ Case: 21-2128 Document: 37 Page: 2 Filed: 08/28/2023

Before NEWMAN, REYNA, and STOLL, Circuit Judges. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge. This is a consolidated appeal of two inter partes review (IPR) decisions, on petitions filed by Roku, Inc. seeking in- validation of certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,821,504 (“’504 patent”) and U.S. Patent No. 7,821,505 (“’505 pa- tent”), owned by Universal Electronics, Inc. (“UEI”). The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB” or “Board”) held all the challenged claims invalid on the ground of obvious- ness; viz., claims 1 and 5 of the ’504 patent and claims 5–7, 9, 10, 12, 49, and 51 of the ’505 patent. We affirm the Board’s decisions. 1 BACKGROUND The Patented Inventions The ’504 and ’505 patents are continuations of U.S. Pa- tent No. 7,782,309, which in turn is a continuation of U.S. Patent No. 7,432,916. The patents are titled “Controlling Device with Dual-Mode, Touch-Sensitive Display” and have substantially the same specifications. The patents state that they are directed to improvements in “remote, cursor control functionality,” ’504 patent, col. 2, ll. 3–8, as “may be utilized to command functional operations of mul- tiple appliances such as those typically found in a home en- tertainment center,” for example televisions, VCRs, and DVD players. Id., col. 4, ll. 15–17. The Abstract summa- rizes: A processing device of a universal controlling de- vice is programmed to distinguish between a first

1 Roku, Inc. v. Universal Elecs., Inc., No. IPR2019- 01621, 2021 WL 1920983 (P.T.A.B. May 12, 2021) (“Board ’504 Op.”); No. IPR2019-01620, 2021 WL 1923108 (P.T.A.B. May 12, 2021) (“Board ’505 Op.”). Case: 21-2128 Document: 37 Page: 3 Filed: 08/28/2023

UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS, INC. v. ROKU, INC. 3

input type provided to a touch-sensitive surface and a second input type provided to the touch-sen- sitive surface. In response to the touch-sensitive surface being provided the first input type which is indicative of a static touch made upon the touch- sensitive surface the processing device causes a transmitter to transmit first data representative of the static touch made upon the touch-sensitive sur- face. In response to the touch-sensitive surface be- ing provided the second input type which is indicative of a moving touch made across the touch- sensitive surface, the processing device causes the transmitter to transmit second data being repre- sentative of the moving touch made across the touch-sensitive surface. ’504 patent, p. 1. Roku requested IPR of claims 1 and 5 of the ’504 patent and claims 5–7, 9, 10, 12, 49, and 51 of the ’505 patent, stating that these claims are unpatentable on the ground of obviousness in view of references authored by Herz, Zetts, and Finkelstein. Patentability of the challenged claims had previously been confirmed on inter partes reex- amination. Board ’505 Op. at *1, Board ’504 Op. at *1. The following claims of the ’504 patent and the ’505 pa- tent are the focus of this appeal: The ’504 patent 1. A method for using a universal controlling de- vice comprised of a touch-sensitive surface to com- mand functional operations of one or more appliances located remotely from the controlling device, comprising: accepting via the touch-sensitive surface of the universal controlling device a first input type indicative of a static touch made upon the touch-sensitive surface; Case: 21-2128 Document: 37 Page: 4 Filed: 08/28/2023

causing the universal controlling device to transmit first data used to command at least a first functional operation of the one or more appliances, the first data being representative of the static touch made upon the touch-sensitive surface; accepting via the touch-sensitive surface of the universal controlling device a second input type indicative of a moving touch made across the touch-sensitive surface; causing the universal controlling device to transmit second data used to command at least a second functional operation of the one or more appliances, the second data be- ing representative of the moving touch made across the touch-sensitive surface; and causing the universal controlling device to dis- tinguish the first input type received via the touch-sensitive surface from the second input type received via the touch-sensitive surface. Claim 5 of the ’504 patent elaborates the second data move- ment of the cursor: 5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second data comprises data for commanding move- ment of a displayed cursor associated with the one or more appliances. The ’504 patent claims are directed to the method, and the ’505 patent claims are for the device. The ’505 patent For the ’505 patent, UEI focuses on the cursor limita- tion in dependent claim 10, which depends from claim 5 (and intervening claims) as follows: Case: 21-2128 Document: 37 Page: 5 Filed: 08/28/2023

UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS, INC. v. ROKU, INC. 5

5. A non-transitory computer-readable media em- bodied in a physical memory device having stored thereon instructions for causing a universal con- trolling device comprised of a display having a touch-sensitive surface and adapted to transmit data to one or more appliances located remotely from the controlling device to perform steps com- prising: displaying in the display of the universal control- ling device one or more graphical user inter- faces comprised of graphical user interface icons; accepting via the touch-sensitive surface of the uni- versal controlling device a first input type in- dicative of a selection of a displayed graphical user interface icon; initiating a transmission by the universal control- ling device to the one or more appliances first data representative of the displayed graphical user interface icon selected by the first input type; accepting via the touch-sensitive surface of the uni- versal controlling device a second input type in- dicative of a motion made across the touch- sensitive surface; initiating a transmission by the universal control- ling device to the one or more appliances second data representative of the motion made across the touch-sensitive surface provided by the sec- ond input type; and allowing the universal controlling device to distin- guish the first input type received via the touch-sensitive surface from the second input type received via the touch-sensitive surface. Claim 10 recites the displayed cursor commanded by the second data: Case: 21-2128 Document: 37 Page: 6 Filed: 08/28/2023

10. The non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 9, wherein the second data com- prises data for commanding movement of a dis- played cursor associated with the one or more appliances. UEI states that the second data and cursor limitations in claim 10 are principal distinctions from the prior art. The Cited References U.S. Patent No.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Universal Electronics, Inc. v. Roku, Inc., (Fed. Cir. 2023).

Universal Electronics, Inc. v. Roku, Inc. (Universal Electronics, Inc. v. Roku, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

In Re Klein
647 F.3d 1343 (Federal Circuit, 2011)
In Re Carl D. Clay
966 F.2d 656 (Federal Circuit, 1992)
In Re Robert J. Gartside and Richard C. Norton
203 F.3d 1305 (Federal Circuit, 2000)
Circuit Check Inc. v. Qxq Inc.
795 F.3d 1331 (Federal Circuit, 2015)
Trustees of Columbia Univ. v. Symantec Corporation
811 F.3d 1359 (Federal Circuit, 2016)
In Re: Van Os
844 F.3d 1359 (Federal Circuit, 2017)
Skky, Inc. v. Mindgeek, S.A.R.L.
859 F.3d 1014 (Federal Circuit, 2017)
Airbus S.A.S. v. Firepass Corporation
941 F.3d 1374 (Federal Circuit, 2019)
Sipco, LLC v. Emerson Electric Co.
980 F.3d 865 (Federal Circuit, 2020)