Mirror Worlds, LLC v. Apple, Inc.

Filing 178

ORDER granting in part and denying in part #156 Motion for Partial Summary Judgment of Invalidity for Indefiniteness. Signed by Judge Leonard Davis on 02/16/10. cc:attys 2-17-10 (mll, )

Mirror Worlds, LLC v. Apple, Inc.

Doc. 178

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS TYLER DIVISION MIRROR WORLDS, LLC Plaintiff vs. APPLE, INC. Defendant § § § § § § § § § ORDER This is a preliminary order concerning the claim construction of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,006,227 (the "'227 Patent"), 6,638,313 (the "'313 Patent"), 6,725,427 (the "'427 Patent"), 6,768,999 (the "'999 Patent"), and 6,613,101 (the "'101 Patent") (collectively, the "patents-in-suit"). The Court's preliminary determination of the disputed terms in the patents-in-suit are listed in the chart below. A full claim construction opinion will be forthcoming. Also before the Court is Defendant Apple Inc.'s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment of Invalidity for Indefiniteness Under 35 U.S.C. § 112 ¶ 2 (Docket No. 156). After considering the briefing and oral argument, the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendant's Motion. Claims 1 and 25 of the '227 Patent and all associated dependent claims are indefinite, while claims 1, 8, 16, and 25 of the '427 Patent and all associated dependent claims are definite. In the '227 Patent, because claims 5, 6, and 9­12 depend on claim 1, which is invalid for indefiniteness, and claims 26, 27, and 29 depend on claim 25, which is also invalid for indefiniteness, claims 5, 6, 9­12, 25, 26, and 29 are likewise invalid. Thus, there is no need to construe disputed terms from claims 5, 6, 9­12, 25, 26, and 29.

CASE NO. 6:08 CV 88

Dockets.Justia.com

'227, '313, '427, and '999 Patents Term or Phrase (Patent and Claim) Court's Construction a time-ordered sequence of documents that functions stream ('227 Patent, Claim 13; '313 Patent, Claim 1; '427 Patent, Claims as a diary of a person or an entity's electronic life and that is designed to have three main portions: past, 1, 20­25, and 37­39; '999 Patent, present, and future Claim 1) main stream ('227 Patent, Claim 13; a stream that is inclusive of every data unit, or document, received by or generated by the computer '313 Patent, Claim 2) system including each data unit according to the timestamp in the respective No Construction chronological indicator in the main stream ('227 Patent, Claim 13) a stream that is a subset of data units, or documents, substream ('227 Patent, Claim 13; yielded by a filter on a stream, the filter identifying '313 Patent, Claims 2 and 11) certain documents within the stream stream-based operating system an operating system that is based on a time-ordered ('427 Patent, Claim 1) sequence of documents that functions as a diary of a person or an entity's electronic life and that is document stream operating system designed to have three main portions: past, present, ('313 Patent, Claim 1; '427 Patent, and future Claim 25) a date and time value that uniquely identifies each timestamp to identify ('227 Patent, document Claim 13) glance views ('313 Patents, Claims 1 an abbreviated presentation of a document and 9; '427 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 16, 25, and 32; '999 Patent, Claim 1) receding, foreshortened stack ('313 Patents, Claims 1 and 9; '427 Patent, No Construction Claims 1, 10, 18, and 25) copying or moving documents to a secondary storage archiving ('313 Patents, Claims 1 medium and 9; '427 Patent, Claims 1 and 8) document organization facility software that organizes documents ('427 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 16, and 25) All eighteen disputed "means for . . Indefinite ." terms in the '227 Patent an item of information of significance to the user that data unit ('227 Patent, Claim 13) the user considers as a unit enterprise information a system that manages information for an enterprise or management system ('999 Patent, organization Claim 1)

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'227, '313, '427, and '999 Patents Term or Phrase (Patent and Claim) Court's Construction abbreviated form ('227 Patent, Claim 20) abbreviated version ('313 Patent, Claims 1 and 9; '427 Patent, Claims 5, 13, 22, 29, and 37) archiving the documents and indicators in consistent format for selective retrieval ('427 Patent, Claims 1 and 8) controlling operating system ('427 Patent, Claims 8 and 16) complex analysis ('427 Patent, Claims 7, 15, 24, 31, and 39) document object model ('999 Patent, Claim 1) chronological indicator ('227 Patent, Claim 13; '427 Patent, Claim 25) persistent streams ('227 Patent, Claim 13) visual streams ('227 Patent, Claim 15) document representation ('427 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 16, 25, and 32) operating system ('313 Patent, Claims 1 and 10; '427 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 16, and 25) No Construction

No Construction an operating system that utilizes subsystems from another operating system analysis of the content of a documents involving selection of important words, pictures, and/or sounds in the document a consistent structure containing information about information assets of diverse types, created by diverse software [AGREED] a data structure containing at least a timestamp [AGREED] streams that are dynamically updated [AGREED] a representation on a display device of a stream [AGREED] a graphical depiction of a document, or data unit [AGREED] the software that handles basic computer operations (e.g. managing input/output, memory, applications, etc.) and presents an interface to the user [AGREED] Except as set forth below, "a data unit"

In the '313 Patent, Claim 1 at col.15:25, 15:26, 15:31, document ('313 Patent, Claims 1 and and 15:33 (i.e. each appearance of "document" in the 9; '427 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 16, 25, fifth and sixth paragraphs of the claim after the preamble) and Claim 9 at col. 16:28, 16:29, and 16:34 and 32) (i.e. each appearance of "document" in the final two paragraphs of the claim, except the word "documents" in line 16:36), "a document representation" selected indicators ('427 Patent, [AGREED] data structures that contain information relating to respective documents Claims 1, 8, and 16)
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'227, '313, '427, and '999 Patents Term or Phrase (Patent and Claim) Court's Construction [AGREED] an external signal to a program or process interrupt ('427 Patent, Claims 1, 8, that may cause the program or process to take some and 16) action a set of commands applicable to the [AGREED] commands associated with operations that can be performed on the documents whose document document representations in the representations are in the stack stack ('427 Patent, Claim 32) marking being common to a class [AGREED] marking in the same way document of documents ('427 Patent, Claim representations associated with documents having the same type or other characteristic 34) time-based indicators ('313 Patent, [AGREED] chronological indicators Claims 1 and 9; '427 Patent, Claims 2, 9, 17, and 32) a substream that persists ('313 [AGREED] a substream that is dynamically updated Patent, Claim 3) information assets ('999 Patent, [AGREED] data units of significance to the users in an enterprise Claim 1) [AGREED] a graphical depiction of a document, or browse card ('999 Patent, Claim 1) data unit a time-ordered sequence of documents that functions time-ordered stream ('999 Patent, as a diary of a person or an entity's electronic life and that is designed to have three main portions: past, Claim 1) present, and future essentially in real time ('999 Patent, [AGREED] without significant delay as perceived by a user Claim 1)

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'101 Patent Term or Phrase (Patent and Claim) Court's Construction a graphical iconic representation of a collection of said first plurality of a collection of two or more document icons displayed documents ('101 Patent, Claims 1, 5, together and 9) Function: displaying a graphical iconic representation of a collection of said first plurality of documents means for displaying a graphical iconic representation of a collection Corresponding Structure: a video display screen, such of said first plurality of documents as a video (CRT) display monitor or a liquid crystal ('101 Patent, Claim 5) display, and a display controller, coupled to a system bus that receives commands and data from a processor, and structural equivalents Function: displaying a first indicia of a first document of said collection by selecting a first position from said graphical iconic representation means for displaying a first indicia Corresponding Structure: (a) a video display screen, of a first document of said such as a video (CRT) display monitor or a liquid collection by selecting a first position from said graphical iconic crystal display, and a display controller, coupled to a system bus that receives commands and data from a representation ('101 Patent, Claim processor, and structural equivalents; and (b) an I/O 5) controller to control receiving signals from a cursor control device such as a mouse, and structural equivalents Function: displaying in series a second indicia of a second document and a third indicia of a third document by positioning said cursor first on a second means for displaying in series a position on said graphical iconic representation next second indicia of a second on a third position on said graphical iconic document and a third indicia of a representation third document by position said cursor first on a second position on Corresponding Structure: (a) a video display screen, said graphical iconic such as a video (CRT) display monitor or a liquid representation next on a third crystal display, and a display controller, coupled to a position on said graphical iconic system bus that receives commands and data from a representation ('101 Patent, Claim processor, and structural equivalents; and (b) an I/O 5) controller to control receiving signals from a cursor control device such as a mouse, and structural equivalents adjacent ('101 Patent, Claims 2, 4, 6, [AGREED] close to 8, 10, and 12)

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So ORDERED and SIGNED this 16th day of February, 2010.

__________________________________ LEONARD DAVIS UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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