I/P Engine, Inc. v. AOL, Inc. et al

Filing 528

Declaration re 527 Reply to Response to Motion, of Joshua L. Sohn in Support of the Reply in Support of Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment by AOL Inc., Gannett Company, Inc., Google Inc., IAC Search & Media, Inc., Target Corporation. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 34, # 2 Exhibit 35, # 3 Exhibit 36, # 4 Exhibit 37, # 5 Exhibit 38)(Noona, Stephen)

EXHIBIT 37

Page 1
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA
NORFOLK DIVISION
-------------------------x
I/P ENGINE, INC.,
Plaintiff,
v.

Civil Action No. 2:11-cv-512

AOL, INC., et al.,
Defendants.
-------------------------x

CONFIDENTIAL PURSUANT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER

Videotaped Deposition of ANDREW K. LANG
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
9:04 a.m.

Reported by:

Amy E. Sikora, RPR, CRR, CSR-NY, CLR

Job No. CS397173

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the -- in the industry at the time to be targeted

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advertising which generally could get higher

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rates per advertisement for -- for Lycos.

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that was one product that we helped with.

So

5

Q.

What other products other than Tripod?

6

A.

I believe another product that Lycos

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had was a directory in which it was a hierarchy

8

of different topics.

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hierarchy at various levels were a bunch of web

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And underneath that

pages and websites.

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And I believe that our -- I believe

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that our technology was helpful to them in that

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normally how they were doing it before was having

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individual editors that were hired by Lycos to

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assign web pages and manage a big hierarchy of

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information on their website, and it was very

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time consuming and expensive for them to do.

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as the web was growing larger and larger, they

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wanted to find a way of doing this in a more

20

automated way that would require less human

21

effort.

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And

So one of the things that -- one of

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the abilities that WiseWire technology had was to

24

look through the Internet and find web pages and

25

then decide what those web pages were about on
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various topics and assign how relevant they were

2

to those topics.

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with their hierarchy, we were able to have their

4

product make less use of human time and more

5

computer time to assign those pages and websites

6

to their hierarchy.

7

Q.

And so combining that ability

Before the merger of WiseWire and

8

Lycos, was there -- had WiseWire provided any

9

services or technology to Lycos in relation to

10

search?

11

MS. ALBERT:

12

A.

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engine?

14

Q.

Yeah.

15

A.

I don't know.

Objection, vague.

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17

In -- in relation to their search

Sitting here today, I

don't remember.
Q.

After the merger of WiseWire and

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Lycos, did -- well, I guess -- well, let me ask

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you this:

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Lycos, essentially WiseWire, did it cease to

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exist?

22
23

A.

After the merger of WiseWire and

Did WiseWire, the company, cease to

exist?

24

Q.

Yeah.

25

A.

Well, in a merger, my general
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understanding is all of the assets and people of

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that company go along with it, and I don't

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know -- I don't know if it's considered to be

4

ceasing to exist.

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expert on corporate law.

6

Q.

Sure.

I guess it is, but I'm not an
Was there like a separate

7

division within Lycos that was called WiseWire

8

after the merger?

9

A.

I don't know if anybody called it a

10

separate division, but I would say compared to

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other acquisitions at the time I'm familiar with,

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WiseWire -- the WiseWire employees and technology

13

were integrated more into the parent company more

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often than usual.

15

Q.

Okay.

Did you personally do any work

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in connection with Internet search when -- after

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the merger with Lycos?

18

MS. ALBERT:

Objection, vague.

19

A.

Did I do any research?

20

Q.

Work in relation to Internet search?

21

A.

After the -- yes.

I'm sorry.

There was a -- an

22

architecture for a new search engine that I

23

worked on that I called Gigasearch.

24

Q.

And what was that?

25

A.

It was a -- an idea that I had,
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A.

No, I can't.

2

Q.

And would that be -- the same would be

3

true for the remaining elements of claim 26?

4

A.

Let me read them.

5

Q.

Sure.

6

A.

Yeah.

I see -- I see terms within

7

each of those clauses that could be defined in

8

different ways within the patent, so I would need

9

to read the patent first.

10

Q.

Okay.

So you can't answer the

11

question as to any of the remaining elements of

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claim 26 as well; correct?

13

A.

No, not without reading the patent.

14

Q.

So you can't answer right now;

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correct?

16

MS. ALBERT:

Objection.

17

A.

That's correct.

18

Q.

Can you identify anything new in

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claim 26 that did not exist before you filed for

20

your patent?

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22

MS. ALBERT:
A.

Objection.

I would need to -- I would need to

23

read the whole patent so I can understand all the

24

terms and pieces of that claim, and then -- and

25

then I'd need to -- and once I understood it,
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then I would need to go and see what systems were

2

in existence at that point in time.

3
4
5

Q.

And you can't do that right now as to

claim 26 of the '664 patent; correct?
A.

Yeah.

I would need the time to read

6

the patent, and then I would probably need to do

7

some Internet research about what systems existed

8

then and how they worked.

9
10

Q.

Okay.

So you can't answer that

question right now; correct?

11

A.

That's correct.

12

Q.

Did -- did you do any investigation

13

concerning what the state of the art was at the

14

time you filed for your patents in connection

15

with your preparation for this deposition?

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17
18
19

MS. ALBERT:

Objection.

Compound,

vague.
A.

I'm sorry, can you repeat the whole

thing?

20

Q.

Sure.

21

A.

Yeah.

22

Q.

Did you do any investigation -- well,

23

let me ask you this:

24

investigation as to what the state of the art was

25

at the time that you applied for your patents?

Have you ever done any

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MS. ALBERT:

2
3

A.

Objection.

Did I do any investigation at that

time that I was applying?

4

Q.

Sure.

5

A.

I believe I probably did, but I

6

don't -- that was a long time ago so I don't

7

remember exactly.

8
9

Q.
then?

10
11
12

Have you -- have you done that since
MS. ALBERT:

A.

Objection.

Have I done any -- have I reviewed

whether there was existing systems out there --

13

Q.

Sure.

14

A.

-- prior to filing?

15
16

I don't recall --

I don't recall doing it since then.
Q.

So, you know, you're really not in any

17

position to identify what -- well, let's move on

18

to a different question.

19

Did anyone tell you not to look at the

20

state of the art at the time you filed for your

21

patents, in connection with your deposition

22

today?

23

MS. ALBERT:

I would caution the

24

witness -- first I want to object to the form of

25

the question.

But I would also caution the

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witness that in the event that any of your

2

testimony would divulge attorney-client

3

communications, I would advise you not to answer.

4

A.

I'm going take my attorney's advice.

5

Q.

So you can't answer the question?

6

A.

That's correct.

7
8

MR. PERLSON:
lunch?

9

11

Probably a good time.
MS. ALBERT:

10

Should we break for

THE WITNESS:

Sure.
I can keep going for

four or five more hours.

12

THE VIDEOGRAPHER:

13

record.

14

Going off the

No. 3.

15

The time is 12:57.

This ends tape

(Luncheon recess: 12:47 p.m.)

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