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“Google tried to argue that its originally-accused merchandise didn’t infringe the 5 patents at concern as a result of Sonos’ infringement allegations relied on ‘options or steps which might be added or carried out by customers after Google imports the units into the US’…. However the CAFC mentioned the courtroom has already rejected that argument.”
The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Monday affirmed an International Trade Commission (ITC) final determination that mentioned Google infringed 5 of Sonos, Inc.’s patents however which additionally discovered three proposed redesigns didn’t infringe.
Sonos owns U.S. Patent Nos. 10,439,896 (“’896 patent”), 9,195,258 (“’258 patent”), 9,219,959 (“’959 patent”), 10,209,953 (“’953 patent”), and 8,588,949 (“’949 patent”). Sonos filed a grievance with the ITC alleging sure Google audio gamers and controllers infringed the patents and the ITC agreed, issuing a restricted exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order (CDO) stopping Google from advertising the infringing merchandise in the US, and set a 100% bond for any importations of infringing merchandise by Google in the course of the interval of Presidential evaluate. Nonetheless, the ITC’s Chief Administrative Legislation Decide mentioned that sure non-infringing options (NIAs) proposed by Google prevented infringement. Sonos appealed the discovering on non-infringement by the NIAs and Google cross-appealed the discovering of infringement by the originally-accused merchandise.
Within the CAFC’s opinion, authored by Decide Stark, the courtroom first defined that the ITC’s discovering with respect to the NIAs was supported by substantial proof. The ITC discovered that the NIAs don’t infringe the ’896 patent, ’258 patent and ’959 patents as a result of:
1) declare 1 of the ‘896 patent requires “transmission of no less than one single ‘second message’ containing each the claimed ‘identifier” and the claimed ‘safety key,’” whereas in Google’s redesigned ’896 NIA 2, “the identifier and the safety key are transmitted in two separate messages”;
2) the ‘258 patent claims “a way for synchronizing sensible audio system with one another by transmitting ‘clock time data’” that means “data representing a time worth indicated by a tool’s clock,” whereas the ’258 NIA 1 makes use of an “incrementing counter” and doesn’t signify a time worth so can’t be the claimed clock time data; and
3) the Fee’s development of the time period “equalization” in declare 10 of the ‘959 patent was right and that, underneath that narrower development, the ‘959 NIA 4 didn’t infringe.
As to Google’s cross-appeal of the Fee’s discovering that the ‘896 and ‘949 patents have been infringed by the originally-accused merchandise, the CAFC equally agreed with the Fee’s findings, which included reliance on Google’s knowledgeable testimony to help that the accused product carry out the claimed steps of the ‘896 patent and due to this fact infringe. Google additionally challenged the Fee’s discovering that it didn’t show that the challenged claims of the ’896 patent are invalid as apparent over the prior artwork system, however the CAFC affirmed the ITC’s evaluation and mentioned the claims of the ‘896 patent are legitimate over the related prior artwork.
Turning to the ‘949 patent, which covers “methods permitting each collective and particular person adjustment of the volumes of gamers inside a bunch,” Google relied on the prosecution historical past to argue that Sonos broadly disclaimed all “tethered or interdependent operation.” However since “[t]he celebration searching for to invoke prosecution historical past disclaimer bears the burden of proving the existence of a transparent and unmistakable disclaimer that will have been evident to at least one expert within the artwork,” the courtroom agreed that the prosecution historical past statements supplied didn’t meet this normal. And since Google didn’t provide one other argument for non-infringement, the CAFC affirmed the ITC’s discovering.
Lastly, Google tried to argue that its originally-accused merchandise didn’t infringe the 5 patents at concern as a result of Sonos’ infringement allegations relied on “options or steps which might be added or carried out by customers after Google imports the units into the US” and due to this fact district courtroom can be the correct discussion board for Sonos’ claims. However the CAFC mentioned, and Google conceded, that the courtroom has already rejected that argument in Suprema, Inc. v. Int’l Trade Com’n, 796 F.3d 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (en banc). In that case, the courtroom mentioned:
“Part 337 contemplates that infringement could happen after importation. The statute defines as illegal ‘the sale inside the US after importation . . . of articles that—(i) infringe . . . .’ The statute thus distinguishes the unfair commerce act of importation from infringement by defining as unfair the importation of an article that may infringe, i.e., be offered, ‘after importation.’ Part 337(a)(1)(B)’s ‘sale. . . after importation’ language confirms that the Fee is permitted to deal with post-importation exercise to determine the completion of infringement.”
Thus, mentioned the CAFC, the courtroom is sure by that precedent.
Picture Supply: Deposit Images
Creator: sharafmaksumov
Picture ID: 229492118
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