Accenture Global Servs. v. Guidewire Software, Inc.

2011 Markman 2148636

800 F.Supp.2d 613

ACCENTURE GLOBAL SERVICES, GMBH and Accenture, LLP, Plaintiffs,

v.GUIDEWIRE SOFTWARE, INC., Defendant.

Civ. No. 07–826–SLR.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

May 31, 2011.

Richard L. Horwitz, Esq. and David E. Moore, Esq. of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, Wilmington, DE, Of Counsel, James P. Bennett, Esq. of Morrison & Foerster LLP, San Francisco, CA and L. Scott Oliver, Esq., Diana Luo, Esq., Ruchika Agrawal, Esq., Matthew Chen, Esq. and Douglas Chartier, Esq. of Morrison & Foerster LLP, Palo Alto, CA, for Plaintiffs.

Jack B. Blumenfeld, Esq. and Julia Heaney, Esq. of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP, Wilmington, DE, Of Counsel, Daralyn J. Durie, Esq., Mark A. Lemley, Esq. and Clement S. Roberts, Esq. of Durie Tangri LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SUE L. ROBINSON, District Judge.I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Accenture Global Services, GmbH and Accenture, LLP (collectively, “Accenture”) brought this action against defendant Guidewire Software, Inc. (“Guidewire”) on December 18, 2007. (D.I. 1) In the complaint, Accenture alleged that Guidewire infringes United States Patent No. 7,013,284 (“the '284 patent”), describing a computer program for developing component-based software capable of performing tasks relating to insurance transactions, such as claims processing. ( Id.) Accenture also brought various state law claims ¹ and a claim for trade secret misappropriation. ( Id.) On October 8, 2008, the court granted Guidewire's motion to dismiss the nonpatent claims. (D.I. 75) By stipulation of the parties, Accenture filed an amended complaint re-alleging its trade secret misappropriation and tortious interference with business relations claims. (D.I. 77; D.I. 79) Accenture filed a second amended complaint on December 17, 2008 to add a claim for infringement of United States Patent No. 7,017,111 (“the '111 patent”). (D.I. 92) On June 30, 2009, the court denied Guidewire's motion to dismiss the tortious interference with business relations claim in Accenture's second amended complaint. (D.I. 224)

Guidewire maintains its originally-filed affirmative defenses for patent invalidity, unenforceability, failure to mark, unclean hands, and patent misuse, as well as counterclaims for declaratory judgments of noninfringement, invalidity, unenforceability, and breach of contract.² (D.I. 10.; D.I. 226) On July 7, 2009, Guidewire amended its counterclaims to add a claim for trade secret misappropriation. (D.I. 226)

By memorandum order dated February 26, 2010, the court stayed the trial and denied without prejudice Guidewire's motion for summary judgment regarding the invalidity of the '284 and '111 patents as claiming unpatentable subject matter, to be renewed upon the Supreme Court's ruling in Bilski v. Doll, –––U.S. ––––, 129 S.Ct. 2735, 174 L.Ed.2d 246 (2009). (D.I. 478) By memorandum order dated March 5, 2010, the court denied Guidewire's motions for summary judgment regarding the invalidity of the '284 patent based on indefiniteness or the on-sale bar, as well as its motion alleging that Accenture's trade secret misappropriation claim was barred by the statute of limitations. (D.I. 484 at ¶¶ 1–2, 4) The court denied without prejudice Guidewire's motion for non-infringement of the '111 patent and for invalidity of the '284 patent as anticipated or obvious. ( Id. at ¶¶ 3, 5) The court also denied Accenture's motion to strike Guidewire's on-sale bar arguments. ( Id. at ¶ 6)

Currently before the court are: (1) Guidewire's supplemental briefing ³ in support of its motion for partial summary judgment of invalidity of the '284 and ' 111 patents as claiming unpatentable subject matter (D.I. 348); (2) Guidewire's motion for clarification, reargument and/or certification of the court's memorandum opinion dated March 5, 2010 (D.I. 485); and (3) Accenture's motion to strike portions of Guidewire's reply in support of its motion for reconsideration (D.I. 490). This matter is not currently scheduled for trial. The court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1338.

II. BACKGROUNDA. The Parties

Accenture and Guidewire are competitors in the consulting and technology services industry. Among other things, the parties provide computer software and consulting services to help design tools to aid insurance companies in their management and processing of information. Accenture provides the “Accenture Claim Components Solution” (“Claim Components”) product suite and associated services; Guidewire's insurance claims management product is called “Guidewire Insurance Suite,” which consists of “Guidewire ClaimCenter,” “Guidewire PolicyCenter,” and “Guidewire BillingCenter” platforms.

B. The Patents at Issue

The '284 patent, entitled “Component based interface to handle tasks during claim processing,” provides a computer program for developing component based software for the insurance industry. The program includes a data component, a client component and a controller component. The client component is responsible for allowing users to edit tasks, add new tasks and “achieve an insurance-related goal upon completion,” as well as generating a historical record of completed tasks.

Claims 1 and 8 are independent claims. They read as follows:

1. A system for generating tasks to be performed in an insurance organization, the system comprising: an insurance transaction database for storing information related to an insurance transaction, the insurance transaction database comprising a claim folder containing the information related to the insurance transaction decomposed into a plurality of levels from the group comprising a policy level, a claim level, a participant level and a line level, wherein the plurality of levels reflects a policy, the information related to the insurance transaction, claimants and an insured person in a structured format; a task library database for storing rules for determining tasks to be completed upon an occurrence of an event; a client component in communication with the insurance transaction database configured for providing information relating to the insurance transaction, said client component enabling access by an assigned claim handler to a plurality of tasks that achieve an insurance related goal upon completion; and a server component in communication with the client component, the transaction database and the task library database, the server component including an event processor, a task engine and a task assistant; wherein the event processor is triggered by application events associated with a change in the information, and sends an event trigger to the task engine; wherein in response to the event trigger, the task engine identifies rules in the task library database associated with the event and applies the information to the identified rules to determine the tasks to be completed, and populates on a task assistant the determined tasks to be completed, wherein the task assistant transmits the determined tasks to the client component.

8. An automated method for generating tasks to be performed in an insurance organization, the method comprising: transmitting information related to an insurance transaction; determining characteristics of the information related to the insurance transaction; applying the characteristics of the information related to the insurance transaction to rules to determine a task to be completed, wherein an event processor interacts with an insurance transaction database containing information related to an insurance transaction decomposed into a plurality of levels from the group comprising a policy level, a claim level, a participant level and a line level, wherein the plurality of levels reflects a policy, the information related to the insurance transaction, claimants and an insured person in a structured format; transmitting the determined task to a task assistant accessible by an assigned claim handler, wherein said client component displays the determined task; allowing an authorized user to edit and perform the determined task and to update the information related to the insurance transaction in accordance with the determined task; storing the updated information related to the insurance transaction; and generating a historical record of the completed task.

The '111 patent, entitled “Insurance file note generation method and system,” provides methods and systems for the automatic generation of file notes for insurance claims using predefined text. Provided components of the foregoing include a claim folder interface and a file note interface containing fields and selectable items. A claim handler is able to select a category and subcategory and provide short text associated with the selection in a predefined text area; a larger text area for free form text may also be provided.

Claims 1, 9 and 13 are independent claims. Claims 1 and 9 are method claims, and read as follows:

1. A method for generating a file note for an insurance claim, comprising the steps of, executed in a data processing system, of: prefilling a first set of fields with information identifying a file note, said information comprising at least one suffix indicating a type of insurance coverage for a participant in a claim and identification of the participant, wherein the at least one suffix is preselected from one or more types of insurance coverage applicable to the claim; obtaining a selection of fields of a first set of fields from a user, the selection identifying information for a second set of fields; displaying in the second set of fields, the information identified by selection of field of the first set of fields; permitting the user to add data to a predefined text area related to each field of the second set of fields based on the selected fields; generating a file note that contains the first set of fields, the second set of fields, and the data in the predefined text area; identifying a level of...