Valentine Commc'ns, LLC v. Six Continents Hotels, Inc.

389 F. Supp. 3d 1223
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedJanuary 9, 2019
DocketCase No. 1:18-cv-1815-WMR
StatusPublished

This text of 389 F. Supp. 3d 1223 (Valentine Commc'ns, LLC v. Six Continents Hotels, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valentine Commc'ns, LLC v. Six Continents Hotels, Inc., 389 F. Supp. 3d 1223 (N.D. Ga. 2019).

Opinion

WILLIAM M. RAY, II, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This case comes before the Court on Defendant Six Continents Hotels, Inc.'s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim [Doc 26]. For the following reasons, Defendant's Motion is GRANTED .

I. BACKGROUND

A. Procedural History

On November 27, 2017, Plaintiff Valentine Communications, LLC (Valentine) filed its original complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against a non-existent entity. [Doc 1]. After its original filing, Valentine amended its complaint to name IHG Resources as a Defendant. [Doc 7]. IHG Resources filed a motion to dismiss or, in the alternative, transfer the present case to this Court. [Doc 13]. Valentine consented to the transfer. [Doc 18].

After the present case was transferred to this Court, Valentine amended its complaint to drop IHG Resources as a defendant and add Six Continents Hotels, Inc. (SCH) in its place. [Doc 22]. Thereafter, SCH filed the Motion to Dismiss that is presently before the Court. [Doc 26].

B. Facts

This case concerns alleged patent infringement by SCH. In its Second Amended Complaint, Valentine alleges that SCH infringes two patents: United States Patent Nos. 8,567,672 (the '672 Patent) and 8,590,785 (the '785 Patent). [Doc 22 at ¶¶ 7-11, 29-33]. Valentine asserts that SCH infringes Claim 18 of the '672 Patent and Claim 1 of the '785 Patent (the Asserted Claims). [Doc 22 at ¶¶ 11, 33]. No other claim of either patent is at issue, and neither party identified any other claim that the Court should assess under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

At their core, the Asserted Claims are directed to the same economic practice: the idea of presenting discounts or offers for goods and services based on certain criteria, such as a user's location. For example, the Background to the '672 Patent states: "The present invention relates to an e-commerce multiple criteria buying *1226and selling methodology and more particularly to a method and apparatus of using the e-commerce multiple criteria buying and selling methodology to conduct business electronically." '672 Patent at 1:21-25. Likewise, the '785 Patent states: "Briefly described, the subject disclosure pertains to systems and methods directed toward universal discount and demand aggregation." '785 Patent at 2:55-57.

Asserted Claim 18 of the '672 Patent is as follows:

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions executable by a processor, the instructions corresponding to a method for providing a discount to a user associated with a user device, comprising:
receiving real-time location information of the user device when the user has consented to having information associated with the user device collected by a third party;
receiving user-defined criteria sent by the user device, wherein the criteria includes:
a quantity of a product or service, and
at least one date range having a minimum value and a maximum value indicating a time period during which the product must be delivered to the user or the service must be performed;
receiving a discount offered by at least one seller, the discount including pricing information associated with a product or service offered by the seller and a quantity of the product or service available for delivery or performance within a given date range from the at least one date range;
matching the discount to the user based on:
the quantity of the product or service,
the date range, wherein the date range matches one or more of the user-defined date ranges, and
a location specified by the user, wherein the location indicates where the product will be delivered or the service will be performed regardless of the current location of the user or the mobile device;
accessing by way of the user device an account with past transactional information and a stored payment method associated with the user; and
presenting the discount that requires the user to redeem the discount within a preset time period or based on availability of the product or service.

Asserted Claim 1 of the '785 Patent is as follows:

A mobile device, comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions executable by a processor to:
prompt a user to accept terms and conditions on the mobile device as a requirement to activate a service with at least one service provider, wherein the terms and conditions provide notice to the user regarding:
how information collected by way of the mobile device will be used,
how the information collected by way of the mobile device will be protected, and
the fact that collection of at least some of the information by way of *1227the mobile device cannot be blocked by the user,
generate purchasing data associated with the user that includes information about products or services purchased by way of a credit or debit card;
a location-based service module executable to generate location-based data, wherein the location-based data corresponds to activities associated with the user of the mobile device; and
a wireless transmitter that:
transmits the location-based data to a third party,
automatically transmits at least a subset of the purchasing data, and
receives an offer for the product or service in response to the transmission of the subset of purchasing data and in accordance with a search function that allows the user to input location and delivery time criteria associated with the product or service.

Stripped of verbiage, the patents claim a fundamental economic practice and a way to conduct business electronically. Specifically, Claim 18 of the '672 Patent uses a "non-transitory computer-readable storage medium," such as a hard drive, with instructions to be executed via a computer processor to (i) receive a user's location; (ii) receive buying criteria from a user, including the quantity of a product or service and the date range of delivery; (iii) receive a discount from a seller with specified selling criteria including price, quantity, and the date range of availability; (iv) match buyers and sellers based on quantity, date range, and location; (v) access a user's account with stored payment and past transactional information; and (vi) present a discount to the user that expires at a certain time or based on product availability.

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Bluebook (online)
389 F. Supp. 3d 1223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valentine-commcns-llc-v-six-continents-hotels-inc-gand-2019.