EC Data Systems, Inc. v. J2 Global, Inc. et al

Filing 72

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION ORDER by Judge Dean D. Pregerson. SEE ORDER FOR DETAILS. (cch)

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1 2 O 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 EC DATA SYSTEMS, INC., 12 13 14 15 16 Plaintiff, v. j2 GLOBAL, INC., ADVANCED MESSAGING TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Defendants. ___________________________ ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Case No. CV 12-07544 DDP (AJWx) CLAIM CONSTRUCTION ORDER OPENING CLAIM CONSTRUCTION BRIEFS AT DOCKET NOS. 61-62 17 18 I. Background 19 This claim construction order pertains to two cases, Case No. 20 11-CV-7904 DDP (“the Vitelity Action”) and Case No. 12-CV-7544 DDP 21 (“the EC Data Action”) (collectively the “Actions”). 22 Communications, Inc. and Advanced Messaging Technologies, Inc. 23 (collectively “j2”) are parties to both Actions. 24 terms have been identified for construction, with EC Data Systems, 25 Inc. (“EC Data”) (the plaintiff in the EC Data Action) and Vitelity 26 Communications, LLC (“Vitelity”) (the defendant in the Vitelity 27 Action) proposing the same construction for three of these terms. 28 j2 is the owner of U.S. Patent Numbers 6,208,638 (“‘638 Patent”); j2 Global A total of five 1 6,350,066 (“‘066 Patent”); 6,597,688 (“‘688 Patent”); and 7,020,132 2 (“‘132 Patent”). 3 infringed some or all of these patents. 4 j2 is asserting that Vitelity and EC Data have The technology at issue relates to user receipt and 5 transmission of facsimile and telephone messages over the Internet, 6 and ways of making those messages available to users. 7 Patent describes a method or system for making messages available 8 to users over the internet. 9 transmitting messages to users in email form. The ‘066 The ‘638 Patent describes a method for The ‘688 and ‘132 10 Patents, which share common specifications and drawings, relate to 11 sending messages over the internet that can be received by a 12 facsimile machine. 13 two categories: Patents ‘066 and ‘638 relate to a message being 14 received by a user, or an “inbound” message; Patents ‘688 and ‘132 15 relate to a message that a user is sending, or an “outbound” 16 message. 17 II. Legal Standard 18 The four patents can generally be grouped into A patent infringement analysis involves two steps: (1) 19 determining the meaning and scope of the patent claims asserted to 20 be infringed; and (2) comparing the properly construed claims to 21 the accused device. 22 Inc., 517 U.S. 370 (1996). 23 presently before the Court. 24 See generally Markman v. Westview Instruments, The first step in this sequence is “It is a bedrock principle of patent law that the claims of a 25 patent define the invention to which the patentee is entitled the 26 right to exclude.” 27 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc) (internal quotation marks omitted). Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312 28 2 The 1 construction of a particular patent claim term presents a question 2 of law, to be decided by the Court. 3 Markman, 517 U.S. at 391. The starting point for claim construction is a disputed term’s 4 ordinary meaning. 5 construction purposes, ordinary meaning is the meaning that a 6 person of ordinary skill in the art would attribute to a claim term 7 in the context of the entire patent at the time of the invention, 8 i.e., as of the effective filing date of the patent application. 9 ICU Med., Inc. v. Alaris Med. Sys., Inc., 558 F.3d 1368, 1374 (Fed. 10 Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1313. For claim Cir. 2009). 11 The claims do not stand alone; a person of ordinary skill in 12 the art “is deemed to read [a] claim term not only in the context 13 of the particular claim in which the disputed term appears, but in 14 the context of the entire patent, including the specification.” 15 Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1313-14 (emphasis added). 16 specification is “the primary basis for construing the claims” in 17 light of the “statutory requirement that the specification describe 18 the claimed invention in full, clear, concise, and exact terms.” 19 Id. at 1315 (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis added). 20 In determining the proper construction, the claim language, 21 specification, and prosecution history – together referred to as 22 the “intrinsic evidence” – are of paramount importance. 23 (“[T]he best source for understanding a technical term is the 24 specification from which it arose, informed, as needed, by the 25 prosecution history.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). 26 Consistent with this principle, courts have recognized that the 27 specification may reveal a special definition given to a claim term 28 by the patentee that differs from the meaning it would otherwise 3 Accordingly, the Id. 1 possess. Id. at 1316. In such cases, the inventor’s lexicography 2 governs. Id. 3 intentional disclaimer, or disavowal, of claim scope by the 4 inventor. In other cases, the specification may reveal an Id. 5 Additionally, “[a] patentee may limit the meaning of a claim 6 term by making a clear and unmistakable disavowal of scope during 7 prosecution.” 8 Educ. v. Hedrick, 573 F.3d 1290, 1297 (Fed. Cir. 2009). 9 Univ. of Pittsburgh of Commonwealth Sys. of Higher While a court interprets claim terms in light of the 10 specification, it should generally not “import[] limitations from 11 the specification into the claims absent a clear disclaimer of 12 claim scope.” 13 1361, 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2007). 14 specification to interpret the meaning of a claim and importing 15 limitations from the specification into the claim can be a 16 difficult one to apply in practice.” 17 In walking this “tightrope,” Andersen, 474 F.3d at 1373, the court 18 hews to the question of “how a person of ordinary skill in the art 19 would understand the claim terms.” 20 Andersen Corp. v. Fiber Composites, LLC, 474 F.3d “[T]he distinction between using the Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1323. Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1323. A court’s ultimate goal is to construe the disputed terms in a 21 manner consistent with the way the inventor defined them and a 22 person of ordinary skill in the art would understand them. 23 construction that stays true to the claim language and most 24 naturally aligns with the patent’s description of the invention 25 will be, in the end, the correct construction.” 26 at 1316 (internal quotation marks omitted). 27 /// 28 /// 4 “The Phillips, 415 F.3d 1 2 III. Analysis A. Claim terms for the ‘638 Patent 3 1. “incoming call signal includes a particular inbound 4 address uniquely associated with a user account” 5 j2's Construction EC Data’s and 6 Vitelity’s 7 Court’s Construction Construction 8 9 10 the inbound address of an incoming call can only be associated with one user account 11 12 the inbound address of an incoming call can only be associated with one user account, and each user account can only be associated with one inbound address the inbound address of an incoming call can only be associated with one user account 13 14 j2's proposed construction is the same one that j2 offered and 15 this Court adopted when this term was previously construed in j2 16 Global Communications, Inc. v. Captaris, Inc., No. 09-CV-4150 DDP 17 (the “Captaris Action”). 18 construction is the same one that the Court rejected in the 19 Captaris Action. 20 21 22 23 24 25 EC Data’s and Vitelity’s proposed In that Action, the Court noted: [T]he court finds no indication that the Patent is limited in the way Defendants suggest. It is clear that each inbound address is uniquely associated with a user; however, the claim is silent as to whether a user is equally limited to one inbound address. The court is persuaded that j2's proposed construction aligns with the most “natural[]” reading of the term. [Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1316.] Defendants’ construction would import limitations not apparent in the claim or specification and, which the court considers severely narrow and outside the realm of what one in the ordinary art would have understood the claim terms to include. 26 (Captaris Claim Construction Order at 19:8-20, Docket No. 205 in 27 the Captaris Action.) 28 its proposed construction during re-examination of the ‘638 Patent EC Data and Vitelity state that j2 disavowed 5 1 when it made the following statement: “The foregoing portion of the 2 written description makes clear that the user account and the 3 inbound address (both used exclusively in the singular case) are 4 uniquely associated-there is nothing in the ‘638 patent that 5 suggests that a single inbound address may be associated with 6 multiple user accounts.” 7 the above quote, the words after the dash seem to indicate that the 8 purpose of the Patent Owner’s statement was to explain that an 9 inbound address is associated with only one user account, not that, (Spohn Decl. Ex. I at 4-5.) However, in 10 as EC Data and Vitelity suggest, each user account can only be 11 associated with one inbound address. 12 “clear and unmistakable disavowal of scope,” as Vitelity and EC 13 Data suggest. 14 Thus, j2 did not make a Hedrick, 573 F.3d at 1297. During reexamination, j2 further stated: 15 [W]hile a user account can have multiple destination addresses, it is clear that only a single inbound address (e.g., a single telephone or facsimile number) is associated with a particular user account. The '638 patent is very clear in this regard, and it only makes sense - it is necessary for a user to have an inbound address that is uniquely associated with a user account so that messages directed to the inbound address will be received by the user, and only by the user, at one or more destination addresses. 16 17 18 19 20 (Spohn Decl. Ex. I at 5.) As with the previous quote, the 21 statement after the dash indicates that an inbound address must be 22 associated with only one user account. The Court previously 23 rejected the same arguments that EC Data and Vitelity now make in a 24 previous case.1 Because j2 did not make a “clear and unmistakable 25 26 27 28 1 Captaris and EasyLink, who participated in coordinated claim construction proceedings, advanced the same arguments, with the same citations to the ’638 Patent’s reexamination history that EC Data and Vitelity now cite. (Bernstein Suppl. Dec. Ex. J at 17; Ex. (continued...) 6 1 disavowal of scope during prosecution,” the Court sees no reason to 2 depart from the construction it adopted in the Captaris action. 3 Hedrick, 573 F.3d at 1297.2 4 2. “redirecting the first incoming call signal 5 from the first communications server to a second 6 communications server” 7 j2's Construction EC Data’s and 8 Vitelity’s 9 Court’s Construction Construction 10 11 12 13 14 directing to the second communications server a call that was originally directed to a first communications server 15 16 17 moving the first incoming call signal from the first communications server to a second communications server, where duplicate user information is provided to the second communication server directing to the second communications server a call that was originally directed to a first communications server There are two disputes regarding the instant term. The first 18 is whether, as EC Data’s and Vitelity’s construction implies, the 19 incoming call signal must actually reach the first communications 20 server before it goes to the second communications server. The 21 22 1 23 24 25 26 27 28 (...continued) K at 11; Ex. L at 26-27; Ex. M at 21.) 2 Additionally EC Data’s and Vitelity’s reliance on the Examiner’s response to j2’s statements during re-examination are of no avail. The Examiner’s unilateral reaction to j2's statement does not bind j2. Salazar v. Procter & Gamble Co., 414 F.3d 1342, 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2005). For these reasons, the Patent Owner’s statements to the Examiner also do not amount to a disavowal of patent scope under Biogen Idec, Inc. v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC, 713 F.3d 1090 (Fed. Cir. 2013). 7 1 second is whether the term requires that duplicate user information 2 be provided to the second communications server. 3 Regarding the first dispute, EC Data and Vitelity state that 4 the term to be construed, itself, implies that the information 5 reaches the first communication server and is then redirected to a 6 second. 7 going one place but ended up in another, not necessarily that it 8 went to one place first and then another. 9 definition of “redirect”: “to change the course or direction of,” 10 available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redirect. 11 However, redirecting only implies that information was See Merriam-Webster’s Additionally, the ‘638 Patent’s preferred embodiment indicates 12 that the invention was designed to redirect information without 13 ever reaching the first server, since problems may exist with that 14 server that prevent it from receiving information: “Also, it should 15 be noted that the call will only come from switch 140 to 16 communications server 150 if there are no problems with the line. 17 Otherwise the call will get routed to a different communications 18 server.” 19 Vitelity’s and EC Data’s proposed construction would exclude the 20 preferred embodiment, a result that is “rarely, if ever, correct.” 21 Playtex Prods.,Inc. v. Procter & Gamble Co., 400 F.3d 901, 904 22 (Fed. Cir. 2005). (Bernstein Decl., Ex. A, col. 5, lines 46-50.) Thus, 23 As to the second dispute, in response to “the Examiner[‘s] 24 state[ment] that the '638 patent lacks support for a limitation 25 requiring that an inbound address remain unchanged during 26 redirection of a message signal to a second communications server,” 27 (Spohn Decl. Ex. I at 5-6 (Patent Owner responding to Spohn Decl. 28 8 1 Ex. H at 2)), the Patent Owner made the following statement during 2 reexamination: 3 [A]t column 5, lines 10-28, the '638 specification provides that a trunk line interface (reference numeral 152 in FIG. 2) of a communications server (reference numeral 150 in FIGS. 1 and 2) “receives signals indicating the circuit destination address of the incoming call.” This “circuit destination address” is the destination on the circuit switched network, and is the same as the “inbound address” described elsewhere in the ‘638 patent and recited in the claims. As noted above, this is the telephone or facsimile number assigned to a user and uniquely associated with the user account. Much of the remainder of column 5, including the discussion at lines 47-62 previously cited by the Patent Owner, addresses redirecting a call to an alternate communications server capable of allocating necessary resources to process the incoming message. This redirecting includes providing the alternate server with “duplicate user information” required to process the call. See column 5, lines 54-62. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 (Spohn Decl. Ex. I at p. 6 (bolded emphasis in original and 14 underlined emphasis added).) 15 Owner’s above statement requires the phrase “where duplicate user 16 information is provided to the second communication server” be 17 incorporated into the definition of the instant term. 18 disagrees. 19 EC Data emphasizes that the Patent The Court In the above quote, the Patent Owner was answering whether “an 20 inbound address remain[ed] unchanged during redirection,” not 21 whether user information was required to be duplicated. 22 the duplication language in the above was not necessary to answer 23 the Patent Examiner’s inquiry, the Patent Owner did not “clear[ly] 24 and unmistakabl[y]” affirm a duplication requirement during 25 reexamination. 26 duplication language above cites to the specification, thus 27 indicating that the language was explanatory, not a disavowal of 28 claim scope. See Hedrick, 573 F.3d at 1297. Because Additionally, the See Andersen, 474 F.3d at 1373 (holding that courts 9 1 should generally not “import[] limitations from the specification 2 into the claims absent a clear disclaimer of claim scope”).3 3 these reasons, the Court will not incorporate the duplication- 4 related language that EC Data and Vitelity suggest. 5 6 3. “Audio Message” j2's Construction 7 8 9 10 For Vitelity’s Court’s Construction Construction an audible message that contains a voice or facsimile message 11 12 a message, such as a voice message but not a facsimile message, that is intended to be heard by a recipient an audible message that contains a voice or facsimile message EC Data does not ask the Court to construe this term. j2's 13 construction is the same as what it proposed and the Court adopted 14 in the Captaris Action. 15 24.) 16 Court rejected in the Captaris Action. (Captaris Claim Constriction Order at 22- Vitelity’s construction is the same construction that the 17 (Id.) Vitelity correctly notes that the specification, at times, 18 makes a distinction between an audio and facsimile message. 19 However courts should generally not “import[] limitations from the 20 specification into the claims absent a clear disclaimer of claim 21 scope.” 22 statement that the Patent Owner made during patent prosecution on 23 June 7, 1999: Andersen, 474 F.3d at 1373. Vitelity also focuses on a 24 25 26 27 3 It appears that the Examiner may have taken the Patent Owner’s above block-quoted response as affirming a duplication limitation. (See Spohn Decl. Ex. J at 4.) For the same reasons that are discussed in footnote 2, however, the Examiner’s statements do not change the Court’s conclusion. 28 10 1 Richardson [the prior art being distinguished] does not anticipate the features present in the currently amended claims to allow distribution of voicemail messages via the use of electronic mail messages, which involves the conversion of [an] incoming audio message into a digital representation of said audio message; and sending said digital representation of said audio message to [an] electronic mail address in an electronic mail message. In addition, Richardson also does not anticipate the association of a recipient’s phone number to an e-mail address to allow an incoming voice call to be delivered to the recipient by determining a user account and an electronic mail address associated with [an] inbound address. (Emphasis added).4 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The above quote, though, is about voicemail. The prior art being 9 distinguished, the Richardson patent, concerns voicemail, not 10 facsimiles. (Bernstein Suppl. Decl., Ex. R.) Indeed, the words 11 “fax” or “facsimile” do not appear in the Richardson patent. (Id.) 12 Accordingly, nothing in the above quote indicates that j2 made a 13 “clear and unmistakable disavowal [regarding facsimiles] during 14 prosecution.” Hedrick, 573 F.3d at 1297 (Fed. Cir. 2009). 15 By contrast, there is substantial evidence that “audio 16 message” includes a “facsimile message.” Claim 11 of the ’638 17 Patent states “[t]he system of claim 1, where the audio message is 18 a facsimile message and the digital representation of the audio 19 message is a graphics file.” (Bernstein Decl., Ex. A, 20 col. 7, lines 54-56 (emphasis added).) Claim 12 claims “[t]he 21 system of claim 1, where the message processing resource further 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 4 The Court notes that the specification and June 7 response were previously cited by Captaris and EasyLink, and the Court did not find the cites persuasive. (Bernstein Decl. Ex. P; Id. Ex. L at 33; Captaris Claim Construction Order.) Regarding the June 7 response, although Vitelity quotes the language block quoted above, it is unclear where in the record this quote can be found. (Vitelity Opening Claim Construction Brief at 7:6-19 (quoting the above block-quoted language but not citing to it). Nevertheless, since j2 does not dispute its accuracy, and since j2 has the better interpretation of the quoted language, the Court need not decide whether this uncited quote is admissible. 11 1 comprises a processor to: determine if the audio message contains a 2 facsimile message or a voice message; and, digitize the audio 3 message if the audio message contains the voice message and 4 receive the facsimile message if the audio message contains the 5 facsimile message.” (Bernstein Decl., Ex. A, col. 7, line 57 – col. 6 8, line 5 (emphasis added).) 7 a facsimile message. 8 9 10 Thus, the term audio message includes B. The ‘066 Patent 1. “user-specific message storage area” j2's Construction EC Data’s and 11 Vitelity’s 12 Court’s Construction Construction 13 14 15 16 17 an area within a storage medium that stores messages for a recipient in a manner that identifies the message uniquely to the recipient 18 19 an area within a storage medium that stores messages for an intended recipient in a manner that identifies the message uniquely to the intended recipient and which is accessible only by the intended recipient an area within a storage medium that stores messages for a recipient in a manner that identifies the message uniquely to the recipient 20 21 j2's construction is the same one that it proposed and the 22 Court adopted in the Captaris Action. (Captaris Claim Construction 23 Order at 15.) 24 aside from the clause beginning with “and which” in EC Data’s and 25 Vitelity’s construction. 26 between the parties’ constructions is that EC Data and Vitelity 27 state that “intended recipient” is superior to a definition that 28 only states “recipient.” The parties offer nearly identical constructions, Before that clause, the only difference The Court finds that the word “intended” 12 1 is unnecessary surplusage. 2 to which the message is directed. 3 likely to confuse the jury, and, thus, frustrate one of claim 4 construction’s chief purposes. 5 Annuities N. Am., LLC, No. CIV.3:04-CV-01897(CF), 2006 WL 1273740 6 (D. Conn. May 9, 2006) (“[T]he purpose of a Markman hearing is to 7 construe the patent claims so that the Court can instruct the jury 8 on the meaning of the patent.”) 9 The recipient is, of course, the entity Adding unnecessary verbiage is Whitserve LLC v. Computer Patent There is also no need to add a requirement that a message be 10 “accessible only by the intended recipient” to the instant term. 11 Although EC Data and Vitelity submit evidence the Patent Owner 12 stated during reexamination that “access to the mailbox is limited 13 to the intended recipient,” (Spohn Decl. Ex. EE at 3, cl. 48 & 99), 14 the instant term does not contain the word “mailbox.” 15 Patent Owner’s statements about the term “mailbox” have at best 16 inconclusive relevance to the instant term. 17 message were “accessible only by the intended recipient,” then 18 individuals (such as a colleague or friend) whom the recipient has 19 given his password to could not access the messages, nor could a 20 repairperson for that matter. 21 While the ‘066 patent specifically discusses the confidentiality of 22 messages, (‘066 Patent at 5:7-9), the invention did not disavow 23 that sometimes someone other than the recipient may access the 24 message. 25 C. 26 The ‘688 and ‘132 Patents /// 28 Additionally, if a Such a result would be absurd. 1. “Message queue” 27 Thus, the /// 13 1 j2's Construction 2 3 4 5 a storage area for storing messages for retrieval using a first-in, first-out policy 7 8 9 11 Court’s Construction Construction 6 10 EC Data’s a data structure implemented within a processing server that stores multiple request messages received from customers for retrieval using a first-in, first-out policy the organization of messages for retrieval using a first-in, first-out policy Vitelity has not proffered a construction for the instant term. Three disputes underlie the parties’ proposed constructions. First, the parties dispute whether a message queue is a data 12 structure or a storage area. 13 should not be incorporated into the Court’s construction, j2 states 14 that the term will confuse the jury. 15 purposes of a Markman hearing is to adopt constructions that will 16 facilitate juror understanding. 17 Magna Donnelly Corp., No. 2:07CV10945-SFC-MKM, 2010 WL 4259615 18 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 25, 2010) (“Dura seems to misunderstand the 19 purpose of a Markman hearing, which is to translate the terse 20 language of the claims that are understandable to a person of 21 ordinary skill in the art into a form that would be readily 22 understood by the jury . . .”) 23 minimally less confusing. 24 organization system, the Court’s adopted construction is likelier 25 to aid the jury. 26 In arguing that “data structure” The Court agrees. One of the Dura Global Technologies, Inc. v. However, “storage area” is at best Because a “queue” is essentially an Nor does the reexamination history, as EC Data suggests, 27 compel a different result. During reexamination, the Patent 28 Examiner defined “queue” as a "multi-element data structure from 14 1 which elements (by strict definition) can be removed only in the 2 same order in which they were inserted; that is, it 3 follows a first-in first-out (FIFO) constraint.” 4 OO at 16.) 5 the present response that the Examiner’s definition of ‘queue’ is 6 correct the term ‘message queue’ as used in the ‘132 patent must 7 incorporate the notion that the queue is a data structure 8 configured to contain multiple messages . . .” 9 original.) (Spohn Decl. Ex. The Patent Owner argued that even if “for purposes of Id. (Emphasis in Thus, the Patent Owner did not affirm a data-structure 10 requirement. 11 is given to “queue,” the term must be modified by “message.” 12 Because the Patent Owner’s argument was not a “clear and 13 unmistakable disavowal of scope during prosecution,” the Court will 14 not adopt the data-structure requirement. 15 1297. 16 The Patent Owner only argued that whatever definition Hedrick, 573 F.3d at Second the parties dispute whether a message queue must be 17 implemented within the processing server. 18 diagram in the ‘688 Patent’s specification and language within the 19 specification that states the “message queue” is included in the 20 “processing server.” 21 the ‘688 Patent indicated that it did not intend to be limited by 22 the diagram EC Data cites: “For purposes of explanation, specific 23 embodiments are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of 24 the present invention. 25 skilled in the art, that the invention may be practiced without 26 these details.” 27 (emphasis added).) 28 principle that a court should generally not “import[] limitations EC Data relies on a (‘688 Patent at Fig. 2 and 3:15.) However, However, it will be understood by one (Bernstein Decl., Ex. C, col. 2, lines 58-62 In light of this language, and the general 15 1 from the specification into the claims absent a clear disclaimer of 2 claim scope,” the Court will not import the processing-server 3 limitation here. 4 Int'l, Inc. v. eSpeed, Inc., 595 F.3d 1340, 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2010) 5 (“[A]n inventor must evince a ‘clear intention’ to limit the claim 6 terms to a specification embodiment.”) 7 Andersen, 474 F.3d at 1373; Trading Technologies Additionally, other evidence suggests that the term 8 “processing server” should not be included in the definition of 9 “message queue.” Although some claims indicate that a processing 10 server implements the message queue, (see, e.g., ‘688 Patent claim 11 10), claim 19 of the ’688 Patent does not specify the hardware on 12 which the message queue runs. 13 queue” to “processing server” and others do not, the pantentee 14 evinced an intention not to impose a “processing server” limitation 15 on all claims. 16 server” in the construction of “message queue.” 17 Because some claims link “message Therefore, the Court will not include “processing Third, EC Data’s states that the term “message queue” requires 18 that multiple messages always be stored. 19 15-16.) 20 reexamination of the ‘132 Patent that the message queue is 21 “configured to contain multiple messages.” 22 16 (emphasis in original).) 23 “multiple messages” and not on the words “configured to contain.” 24 Something that is “configured” to do something need not always do 25 that thing, but instead, need only be “set up for operation 26 especially in a particular way.” (Bernstein Suppl. Decl., Ex. Q 27 (providing Webster’s definition of “configure”); see also Boston 28 Scientific Corp. v. Cordis Corp., No. C 02-01474 JW, 2006 WL (EC Data Op. Br. at EC Data quotes a statement by the Patent Owner during (Spohn Decl. Ex. OO at Here, EC Data focuses on the words 16 1 3782840, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 20, 2006) (relying on the following 2 dictionary definition to define “configure”: “to design, arrange, 3 set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses”). 4 Accordingly, “message queue” does not include within its definition 5 a requirement that there be multiple messages, only a requirement 6 that the message queue be designed to hold multiple messages.5 7 IV. Conclusion 8 9 10 For the reasons set forth above, the court adopts the above claim constructions. IT IS SO ORDERED. 11 12 13 Dated: September 13, 2013 DEAN D. PREGERSON United States District Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 5 25 26 27 28 EC Data’s supplemental authority to the contrary is unpersuasive. (Docket No. 69.) The supplemental authority again indicates that a message queue must be “configured” to contain multiple messages. The authority also indicates that j2 stated during reexamination that the “message queue must be able to store multiple message.” (Spohn Supp. Decl. Ex. QQ at 9.) That something is able to do something, does not mean that it is always required to do it under every circumstance. 17

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