Baxter Int'l, Inc. v. Carefusion Corp.

BAXTER INTERNATIONAL, INC., Plaintiff, v. CAREFUSION CORPORATION, and BECTON, DICKINSON, AND COMPANY, Defendants.

No. 15-cv-09986

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

May 13, 2016

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

AMY J. ST. EVE, United States District Judge:

Defendants CareFusion Corporation and Beckton, Dickinson, and Company (collectively, "CareFusion" or "Defendants") seek to dismiss two claims brought by Plaintiff Baxter International, Inc. ("Baxter"). (R.34). Baxter's First Amended Complaint alleges that Defendants infringed three patents relating to medical infusion pumps: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,764,034 ('034 Patent); 5,782,805 ('805 Patent); and 6,321,560 ('560 Patent). (R.29). Defendants now move to dismiss Count I ('034 Patent) and Count III ('560 Patent) pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to recite patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. For the following reasons, the Court denies Defendants' motion.

BACKGROUND

I. The '034 Patent

The '034 Patent, entitled "Battery Gauge For A Battery Operated Infusion Pump" was filed on April 10, 1996. (R.29-1, '034 Patent at 1). The '034 Patent lists two inventors, George Bowman and Grace Esche, and is assigned to Baxter. (Id.). The '034 Patent is directed to an infusion pump capable of estimating the amount of time left on a battery by monitoring both the voltage available from the battery, and the amount of current flowing from the battery. (Id., col. 2: 14-16, 20-23). The summary of the '034 Patent recites: "[t]he present invention provides a medical infusion pump which incorporates cost-effective, sensitive battery monitoring." (Id., col. 2: 11-13). The summary further discloses an electric circuit which enables a "sampling technique [that] alternates between sampling battery voltage and sampling current drain." (Id., col. 2: 25-28). "A method is then applied to the sampling signals by a microprocessor which determines the amount of time left under battery power." (Id., col. 2: 28-30). The specification recites that the "invention also provides several troubleshooting alert, alarm and failure messages" to health care providers. (Id., col. 8: 15-16). The alert condition includes "a battery low alert, which indicates that the auxiliary battery has less than a predetermined amount of infusion time left." (Id., col. 8: 29-32). The alarm condition "indicates that the auxiliary battery charge has diminished below the level necessary to continue infusion." (Id., col. 8: 34-35).

The independent claims of the '034 Patent state:

1. An infusion pump comprising:

a pump drive mechanism for applying the pumping action to a liquid for infusion in a patient;

a battery for powering the pump drive mechanism;

a circuit which monitors the voltage and current from the battery;

a circuit responsive to the monitoring circuit which determines the remaining time of charge in the battery;

a battery alarm which occurs when the remaining time of charge in the battery is below a predetermined level;

a battery low alert which occurs when the remaining time of charge in the battery is below a predetermined level but above the battery alarm level; anddisplay means for displaying the remaining time of charge in the battery.

(Id., col. 15: 36-50).

6. An infusion pump comprising:

an electrically powered pumping mechanism which provides pumping action for infusing a patient with a liquid;

a battery which provides electronic power to the electronically powered pump mechanism;

a circuit which monitors the voltage of the battery;

a circuit which monitors the current from the battery;

means responsive to the current-monitoring circuit and the voltage-monitoring circuit which determines the remaining time of charge in the battery;

a battery alarm which occurs when the remaining voltage left in the battery is below a predetermined level;

a battery low alert which occurs when the remaining time of charge in the battery is below a predetermined level;

a battery deplete alarm which occurs when the battery voltage or current falls below a predetermined battery deplete level; and

a display which displays the remaining time of charge in the battery.

(Id., col. 15-16: 64-17).

9. A method of infusing liquid into a patient comprising:

infusing the liquid into the patient by use of an electrically powered mechanism;

powering the electronically powered mechanism with a battery;

monitoring the voltage of the battery;

monitoring the current from the battery;

determining from the voltage and current the remaining time of charge in the battery;alarming when the remaining time of charge in battery is below a predetermined level;

alerting when the remaining time of charge in battery is below a predetermined level but above the battery alarm level; and

displaying the remaining time of charge in the battery.

(Id., col. 16: 24-39).

13. An apparatus for monitoring the power of a battery, comprising:

a circuit which monitors the voltage and current from the battery;

a circuit responsive to the monitoring circuit which determines the remaining time of charge in the battery;

microprocessing means responsive to the determining circuit which calculates the remaining time of charge in the battery in accordance with the following:

B=(?XY)-(n*Y¯))/((?X²)-(n*X¯))

A=Y¯-(B*X¯)

and

T=((V-A)/B)-m

where

A is the intercept of voltage at time O;

B is the slope of the voltages one time;

T is the time left to reach the voltage (V);

?XY is the summation of each voltage reading (Y) multiplied by its time position (X);

m is the number of voltage values; n is the summation of all time position values;

?X² is the summation of the squares of all time position values;

X¯ is the average of all time position values;

Y¯ is the average of all voltage values; and

display means for displaying the remaining time of charge in the battery.

(Id., col. 16-18: 50-3).

II. The '560 Patent

The '560 Patent, entitled "Method and Apparatus For Automatically Controlling The Level of Medication" was filed on February 10, 1999. (R.29-3, '560 Patent at 1). The '560 Patent lists three inventors, Tuan Bui, Doron Levitas, and Stephen L. Axel, and is assigned to Baxter. (Id.). The '560 Patent is directed to "a method and apparatus for automatically adjusting the medication level for a patient . . . based on the patient's pain intensity." (Id., col. 1: 6-10).

The claimed method and apparatus address a need for "automatically adjusting the medication level in response to input from a patient regarding his pain level, side effects and impairment of functionalities, without having to contact the caregiver or physician." (Id., col. 2: 39-43). In particular, the specification discloses "a method and apparatus which captures relevant information pertaining to pain level, side effects and patient impairment and automatically adjusts the amount of medication, within a pre-determined level selected by the patient's physician." (Id., col. 2: 52-56).

The physician or caregiver first programs the pump for a specific patient, after which point "a pain relief algorithm . . . modifies the PCA treatment in response to input regarding the patient's pain level, side effects and function impairment." (Id., col. 2-3: 59-5). The infusion pump detects pain level by storing the number of pain medication requests the patient makes over a prescribed period of time, or by querying the patient directly. (Id. col. 3: 7-14). Similarly, either the patient—through responses to specific queries—or the health care provider may program into the infusion pump information relating to (i) side effects and/or (ii) the impairment of patient functionality. (Id. col. 3: 18-32). "After completion of inputting all data, the data is processed by the algorithm, and the patient's PCA medication rate is conformed to the algorithm or adjusted if indicated by the algorithm." (Id. col. 3: 33-36).

The independent claims of the '560 Patent state:

1. A method for automatically controlling the level of a patient's medication administered from a programmable infusion pump, comprising:

programming the infusion pump with a medication algorithm;

initiating an evaluation of the patient's medication;

obtaining information pertaining to the patient's condition;

obtaining information pertaining to the patient's current medication;

evaluating the patient's current medication and condition with the medical algorithm; and

controlling administration of the patient's medication based on the evaluation.

(Id., col. 14: 6-20).

8. A routine for operating an infusion pump to automatically control the level of a patient's medication, the infusion pump comprising a controller for executing the routine and a memory for storing the routine, responsive to a request for an evaluation of the patient's current medication; comprising:

a set of patient-specific, predetermined ranges of medication stored in the memory;

a procedure for obtaining information pertaining to the patient's pain level and storing the patient's pain level information automatically;

a procedure for obtaining information pertaining to the patient's side effects and storing the patient's side effect information automatically;

a procedure for obtaining information pertaining to the patient's impairment of functionalities and storing the patient's impairment of functionalities information automatically;

a procedure for obtaining information pertaining to the patient's current medication;

a procedure for evaluating stored information of the patient's current medication, pain level, side effects and impaired functionalities with the stored set of patient-specific, predetermined ranges of medication; anda procedure for automatically modifying delivery of the patient's medication based on the evaluation.

(Id., col. 14-15: 47-6).

9. An infusion pump for administering a liquid medicant to a patients comprising:

a liquid injection device adapted to be connected to the patient;

a conduit connected to the liquid injection device;

a pumping mechanism for pumping the liquid medicant

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