A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


SRF
The Honorable Sherry R. Fallon

Looks like Judge Fallon is trying out a new way of doing public hearings, with a YouTube mirror of a private Zoom teleconference at 10:00am ET on Tuesday 9/15:

ORAL ORDER- The Markman Hearing on 9/15/2020 will be a public hearing. The YouTube link for interested members of the public to observe the live Zoom session is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-9WpLOvaLk&feature=youtu.be.

NexStep, Inc. v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, C.A. No. 19-1031-RGA-SRF (D. Del.).

The hearing is scheduled to last 3 hours and cover 6 terms.

To my knowledge, this is the first D. Del. hearing to post a public YouTube (rather than Zoom) link, at least in the IP space.

Honestly this sounds like a good way …

A Crack
Crack on white concrete surface, Brina Blum, Unsplash

Two opinions in the past week have come to differing conclusions as to whether the recitation of claim elements in a complaint is sufficient to state a plausible allegation of infringement.

Recitation of Claim Elements Helpful

In the first, Dynamic Data Technologies, LLC v. Brightcove Inc., No. 19-1190-CFC (D. Del. July 20, 2020), the Court denied a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss an allegation of direct infringement, stating that it was sufficient to:

identif[y] products accused of infringing each of the asserted patents, identif[y] at least one claim of each asserted patent that the accused products infringe, and describe[] how those products infringe the identified claim.

To show …

Cell Tower
Cell Tower Ben Vaughn, Unsplash

In an R&R this week, Judge Fallon recommended granting a § 101 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.

She rejected a proffered expert declaration regarding novelty of the invention, because "the court declines to consider matters outside the pleadings on a Rule 12 motion to dismiss."

She noted that "[t]he law is now well-established that patent eligibility is a threshold issue." So far she has recommended granting three § 101 motions to dismiss this year, out of four that she has addressed.

The § 101 issues addressed here were not unusual. The patent, originally held by LG and now by NPE Aegis 11 S.A., sets forth an algorithm for using random numbers to authenticate …