EIT Holdings, LLC v. Linkedin Corporation

Filing 35

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION STATEMENT and Prehearing Statement Pursuant to Patent L.R. 4-3 filed by EIT Holdings, LLC. (Lipski, Alisa) (Filed on 1/3/2012)

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Mark W. Good (State Bar No. 218809)

2 Benedict O'Mahoney (State Bar No. 152447)
TERRA LAW LLP

3 177 Park Avenue, Third Floor
San Jose, California 95113

4 Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]

5 Email: [e-mail]

Email: [e-mail]

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Alisa A. Lipski (SBN 278710)

7 Edward W. Goldstein (TX Bar No. 08099500)
GOLDSTEIN & LIPSKI PLLC

8 1177 West Loop South, Suite 400
Houston, Texas 77027

9 Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]

10 Email: [e-mail]

Email: [e-mail]

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Attorneys for Plaintiff and Counterclaim

12 Defendant

EIT Holdings LLC

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

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19 EIT HOLDINGS LLC, a Delaware company,
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Plaintiff,

Case No. 5:11-CV-02465 PSG

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND
PREHEARING STATEMENT
PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3

vs.

22 LINKEDIN CORPORATION, a Delaware
Corporation,
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Defendant.

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Pursuant to Patent L.R. 4-3 and the Court’s Case Management Order of September 21,
2011 (Doc. No.26), Plaintiff and Counterclaim Defendant, EIT Holdings LLC (“EIT”) submits

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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1 the following Claim Construction and Prehearing Statement. LinkedIn Corp. (“LinkedIn”)
2 declined to participate.
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A. The Construction of Terms on Which the Parties Agree

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There are no terms on which the parties agree.

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B. Proposed Constructions of the Disputed Terms

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EIT asks that the Court construe eight terms from U.S. Patent No. 5,828,827 (“the ‘837

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patent”). LinkedIn has asked the Court to adopt in its entirety Judge Alsup’s claim

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construction order of October 24, 2011 in EIT Holdings LLC v. Yelp!, Inc., 3:10-cv-

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05623-WHA.
Defendant LinkedIn declined to participate, stating: “We disagree that the joint

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claim construction statement is due, and do not wish to rush the typical process involved in

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preparing such a statement. It is our position that the Court did not set a schedule that

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would require the filing of the joint claim construction statement on January 3rd and that

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the parties should address a proper time for such a filing at the upcoming case management
conference.”

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Pat. L.R. 4.2(a)
Plaintiff’s Proposed
Construction, including structure
for those terms governed by 35
U.S.C. § 112(6)
means for Function: receiving, through the
receiving master node, a user id and
respective network address
corresponding to a current user of
the user node

Term

Structure web server of master
program and equivalents.

Pat. L.R. 4.2(b)
Plaintiff’s Identification of Intrinsic
and Extrinsic Evidence

“The master program module . . . includes
means
for receiving the user id and respective
network address
from the master node[.]
‘837 patent at 2:45-48

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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‘837 patent, Fig. 1

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“[W]eb server 148 provides a home page
for user registration, information, . . .”
‘837 patent at 3:57-58

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means for Function: transmitting to the user
transnode, through the master node, a
mitting
reference to target information
corresponding to the accessed user
profile
Structure: web server of master
program and equivalents

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“The master program module accesses
user
profile information corresponding to the
user id, and transmits
a reference to target information to the
user node.”
‘837 patent at 2:60-62.

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“FIG. 5A contains a flowchart showing
the process of transmitting target
information to the user using otherwise
idle bandwidth. When a user connects to
ISP 150 (step 502),
ISP 150 notifies master program 140 of
the user's identity
and network address (step 506).

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’837 patent at 4:48-53

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“Master program 140 transmits the
identified reference to Client 122 of user
node 120 (step 512) upon request from
Client 122.”

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’837 patent at 4:59-61.

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See also Fig. 1
Fig. 2. Fig. 5A
“While ‘surfing’ on the internet, 200, the
user may select master program 140 home
page (step 304). Upon selecting master

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Means
for registering

Function: registering a first-time
user of the computer network

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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Structure: the combination of a web
server, master program, and user
node; and equivalents

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program 140, authentication program 146
checks to see whether the user is
registered in master program 140 (step
306)”
‘837 patent at 4: 4-11.

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“The first step in using network 100 is the
user registration
process, which will be explained with
reference to FIG. 3. . . . If the user is
not registered, master program 140
presents a registration form to the user
node 120 (step 308). The user then
completes the registration form on the
screen by providing user profile
information, such as user identification of
ISP 150, characteristics, interests and
hobbies (step 310). User node transmits
the completed form to master program
140 which stores it in master database 143
(step 312) “

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‘837 patent at 4:4-5, 14-21)

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“[W]eb server 148 provides a home page
for user registration[.]” ‘837 patent at
3:57-58

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‘837 patent, extract from Fig. 3.

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“FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a user
registration process according to a
preferred implementation of this
invention[.]” Id. at 19-20.

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Extrinsic:

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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“’Means for registering’ in this patent,
would be understood a person of ordinary
skill in the art, in 1996, to be the
combination of a web server, master
program, and user node. 3:58–60; 4:4–25;
Fig. 3; 3:19–20.”

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Expert Declaration of Dr. Tal Lavian at
¶66.

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Means
for
accessing

Function: accessing from the
master database user profile
information corresponding to the
user id

“Sybase SQL-Server platform 142
accesses a master database 143[.]” ‘837
patent at 3:53–54.

Structure: sql-server of master
program and equivalents

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‘837 patent, extract from Fig. 1.

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“If the user is registered, master program
140 accesses user profile information to
identify the reference to the corresponding
item of information item list stored in
master database 143 (step 510) .”

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‘837 patent at 4:55-58

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See also Fig. 5A

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Extrinsic:

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“’Means for accessing’ in this patent,
would be understood a person of ordinary
skill in the art, in 1996, to be a server built
on a Sybase SQL-server platform or
similar database technology. 3:50–54;
Fig. 1; 3:14–15.”

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Expert Declaration of Dr. Tal Lavian ¶ 65

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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reference

Dynamically generated pointer

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“The master program module accesses
user
profile information corresponding to the
user id, and transmits
a reference to target information to the
user node. The user node receives the
reference to the target information,
and requests a transfer of target
information from a master
node.”

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’837 patent at 2:60-65.

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“That pointing corresponds to the user
profile information
on the user registration form. Segments
can include,
for example, hobbies and interests. Each
segment of user
segment list 420 in turn points to a
particular item on
information item list 430 that represents
the type of relevant target information to
be sent to the user as described below.”

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’837 patent at 4:42-45

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“If the user is
registered, master program 140 accesses
user profile information
to identify the reference to the
corresponding item of
information item list 430 stored in master
database 143 (step
510). Master program 140 transmits the
identified reference to Client 122 of user
node 120 (step 512)
upon request from Client 122. This
enables Client 122 to begin requesting
target information stored in information
base 133 corresponding to the referenced
item of information item list 430 (step
514).”

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’837 patent at 4:55-64.

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See also
CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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Figure 4

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Extrinsic:

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“The terms ‘pointer’ and ‘reference’ are
generally interchangeable, although
particular programming languages
differentiate these two in subtle ways.”

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Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing.
www.foldoc.org

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“A reference is a link or pointer to
another object, and implies a relationship
to that other object.”

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U.S. Patent No. 576,039 at 3:35-36

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“Given the content of shadow documents
and their relationship to the original or
root document, an algorithm in Tree
Builder 236 can be used to traverse the
chain of pointers or references to the
parent of each shadow document, and,
once the root has been identified, to then
recursively traverse all references to each
child document.”

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U.S. Patent Publication No. 1US
2008/0244372 at ¶ 51.

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“When invoking print through a pointer
(or reference) which has been declared to
be a pointer to an object of type person,
the actual virtual function to be called will
be determined at run time according to the
actual type of the referenced object.”

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U.S. Patent No. 5,590,327 at 5: 43-47

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“In computer science, a reference is a
value that enables a program to indirectly
access a particular data item, such as a
variable or a record, in the computer’s
memory or in some other storage device.
A reference is distinct from the data itself.
Typically, a reference is a physical

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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address of where the data is stored in
memory or in the storage device. For this
reason, a reference is often called a
pointer or address, and is said to point to
the data.”

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The Free Dictionary by Farlex at
www.thefreedictionary.com

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See also perldoc.perl.org, Making
Reference at 1-4

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means for Function: storing a user report
storing
from the user node
Structure: sql-server of master
program and equivalents

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’837 patent at
3:5-6
“Client 122 eventually transmits the
user report to master program 140 (step
540), and master
program 140 updates master database 143
with the user report (step 542).”

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“Finally, the master program module
stores the user report from the user node.”

Master
node

Web connected server or cluster of
servers.

’837 patent at 7: 8-11
See Figure 1, Master Node 130

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“The master node is coupled to the user
node over a transmission
medium capable of supporting
communications
between the master node and the user
node. The master node includes means for
receiving the user id and the respective
network address from the network service
provider, means
for monitoring the traffic on the
transmission medium
between the user node and the master
node, and means for
transferring information to the user node
without causing
additional communication delay between
the master node and the user node.”

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’837 patent at 2: 36-45.

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
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“The master node transfers the requested
target information
to the user node while minimizing
additional communication
delay between the master node and the
user node.”

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’837 patent at 2:65-3:1

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“A master node 130 is preferably a server
which has a special FTP (File Transfer
Protocol) service 132 that transfers
information to the user in conjunction
with the Client
122. Preferably, service 132 includes FTP
software that
provides the necessary mechanism to
minimize interference
with network traffic. Special FTP service
132 also accesses
information base 133 containing
referenced information items.”

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’837 patent at 3: 42-49

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“During the user's session on computer
network 100,
master node 130 automatically transfers
the referenced
target information in the background to
Client 122 (step 516). The target
information is transmitted in packets over
a
transmission medium until all packets are
transferred (step
518).”

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’837 patent at 4:65-5:3.

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Master
database

Collection of information including
user profile information and target
information list

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

“Sybase SQL-Server platform 142
accesses a master database 143, which
contains user
information including user profile
information and target information
references.”

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’837 patent at 3:
53-56

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“Master database 143 stores user profile
references to the user segment list 420 and
information item list 430.”

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’837 patent at 4:
47-48

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“If the user is
registered, master program 140 accesses
user profile information to identify the
reference to the corresponding item of
information item list 430 stored in master
database 143 (step
510).”

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’837 patent at 4:56-58

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Extrinsic:

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“Database – A collection of related
information in an easily accessible format
such as a table form or report.”

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Computing Dictionary, PCNovice
Learning Series, The Illustrated Book of
Terms and Technologies (Winter 1996)

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“Database – computing a collection of
computer data.”

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Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
(10th Ed. 1996)

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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GOLDSTEIN & LIPSKI P.L.L.C.

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3 January 3, 2012

Respectfully submitted,

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By: /s/ Alisa A. Lipski
Alisa A. Lipski (SBN 278710)
Edward W. Goldstein (Pro Hac Vice)
GOLDSTEIN & LIPSKI PLLC
1177 West Loop South, Suite 400
Houston, TX 77027
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
Email: [e-mail]

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Mark W. Good (State Bar No. 218809)
Benedict O'Mahoney (State Bar No. 152447)
TERRA LAW LLP
177 Park Avenue, Third Floor
San Jose, California 95113
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Email: [e-mail]

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ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF
EIT HOLDINGS LLC

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
The undersigned hereby certifies that all counsel of record who are deemed to have
consented to electronic service are being served with a copy of this document via the Court’s
CM/ECF system on January 3, 2012, or, if not yet registered with the Court's CM/ECF system, via
electronic mail pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 5(b)(2)(E). Any other counsel of record will be served by
first class U.S. Mail.

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/s/ Alisa A. Lipski
Alisa A. Lipski

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CLAIM CONSTRUCTION AND PREHEARING
STATEMENT PURSUANT TO PATENT L.R. 4-3
Case No. 5:11-CV-02465-PSG

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