Chamberlain Grp., Inc. v. Techtronic Indus. Co.

315 F.Supp.3d 977

The CHAMBERLAIN GROUP, INC., Plaintiff,

v.TECHTRONIC INDUSTRIES CO., LTD., Techtronic Industries North America, Inc., One World Technologies, Inc., Owt Industries, Inc., et, Technology (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., and Ryobi Technologies, Inc., Defendants.

Case No. 16 C 6097

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

May 23, 2018

Christopher O. Green, Jacqueline Tio, Karan Jhurani, Benjamin Thompson, Fish & Richardson P.C., Atlanta, GA, Katherine Vidal, Matthew R. McCullough, Michael R. Rueckheim, Winston & Strawn LLP, Menlo Park, CA, Aldo A. Badini, Shanna Ariel Lehrman, Winston & Strawn LLP, New York, NY, Benjamin C. Elacqua, Fish & Richardson P.C., Houston, TX, George Carter Lombardi, Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, IL, Maria Elena Stiteler, Fish & Richardson P.C., Minneapolis, MN, Nicole L. Little, Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery, Chicago, IL, Thomas M. Melsheimer, Winston & Strawn LLP, Dallas, TX, for Plaintiff.

Jason C. White, Michael J. Abernathy, Nicholas A. Restauri, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Chicago, IL, Erin Gibson, Sean Cunningham, Stanley Panikowski, DLA Piper LLP (US), San Diego, CA, Sanjay K. Murthy, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Chicago, IL, Steven John Reynolds, DLA Piper LLP (US), Chicago, IL, Christopher O. Green, Jacqueline Tio, Karan Jhurani, Fish & Richardson P.C., Atlanta, GA, Katherine Vidal, Winston & Strawn LLP, Menlo Park, CA, Benjamin C. Elacqua, Fish & Richardson P.c., Houston, TX, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Harry D. Leinenweber, Judge

Plaintiff Chamberlain Group, Inc. ("Chamberlain") won a jury verdict against Defendants Techtronic Industries Co., Ltd., Techtronic Industries North America, Inc., One World Technologies, Inc., OWT Industries, Inc., Et Technology (WUXI) Co. Ltd., and Ryobi Technologies (collectively, "TTI"), in which the jury found that TTI willfully infringed two of Chamberlain's patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 7,224,275 ("the '275 patent") and 7,635,966 ("the '966 patent"). Both parties have filed post-trial motions. This opinion presumes familiarity with the case's background, as described in this Court's previous rulings. (See, e.g. , Dkt. 104 (preliminary injunction opinion); Chamberlain Grp., Inc. v. Techtronic Indus. Co., No. 16 C 6097, 2017 WL 368027 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 23, 2017) (contempt opinion); Chamberlain Grp., Inc. v. Techtronic Indus. Co., No. 16 C 6097, 2017 WL 1304559 (N.D. Ill. Apr. 7, 2017) (claim construction opinion); Chamberlain Grp., Inc. v. Techtronic Indus. Co., No. 16 C 6097, 2017 WL 3205772 (N.D. Ill. June 28, 2017) (order denying motion to transfer venue).)

I. TTI's Renewed Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

The Court "should render judgment as a matter of law when a party has been fully heard on an issue and there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for that party on that issue." Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., 530 U.S. 133, 149, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000) (quoting FED. R. CIV. P. 50(a) ). This is a stringent standard under which the Court "construe[s] the facts strictly in favor of the party that prevailed at trial." Schandelmeier–Bartels v. Chi. Park Dist., 634 F.3d 372, 376 (7th Cir. 2011) (citations omitted). On a motion for JMOL, "the court does not make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence," id. , though the Court must "disregard all evidence favorable to the moving party that the jury is not required to believe." Reeves, 530 U.S. at 151, 120 S.Ct. 2097. The court leaves the jury's factual findings "undisturbed as long as they are supported by substantial evidence," i.e., "such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Cable & Wireless Internet Servs., Inc., 344 F.3d 1186, 1192 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (quoting Consol. Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229, 59 S.Ct. 206, 83 L.Ed. 126 (1938) ).

In its renewed Motion for JMOL, TTI argues it is entitled to judgment because: (1) the asserted '275 patent claims are directed to ineligible subject matter under Alice Corp. Pty. v. CLS Bank Int'l, ––– U.S. ––––, 134 S.Ct. 2347, 189 L.Ed.2d 296 (2014) ; (2) the '275 patent was anticipated or rendered obvious by prior art; (3) TTI's products do not literally infringe the '275 patent ; (4) the doctrine of equivalents does not apply here, and the jury should not have considered it; (5) TTI does not induce infringement of the '275 patent, (6) TTI does not willfully infringe the '275 patent ; (7) the '966 patent was anticipated or rendered obvious by prior art; (8) TTI does not literally infringe the '966 patent ; (9) TTI does not induce infringement of the '966 patent ; (10) TTI does not willfully infringe the '966 patent ; and (11) Chamberlain failed to prove damages. The Court takes each argument in turn.

A. Ineligibility of Asserted '275 Patent Claims

Anyone who "invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof" may obtain a patent. 35 U.S.C. § 101. But because patent protection does not extend to claims that monopolize the "building blocks of human ingenuity," claims directed to laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patent eligible. Alice, 134 S.Ct. at 2354. The Supreme Court instructs courts to distinguish between those claims directed to patent-ineligible subject matter and those that "integrate the building blocks into something more." Id. To do so, courts follow the two-step Alice framework. Id. First, a court must "determine whether the claims at issue are directed to a patent-ineligible concept." Id. at 2355. If they are not so directed, the claims satisfy § 101, and the inquiry ends. Visual Memory LLC v. NVIDIA Corp., 867 F.3d 1253, 1262 (Fed. Cir. 2017). But if the claims are so directed, the court proceeds to step two and "examine[s] the elements of the claim to determine whether it contains an 'inventive concept' sufficient to 'transform' the claimed abstract idea into a patent-eligible application." Core Wireless Licensing S.A.R.L. v. LG Elecs., Inc., 880 F.3d 1356, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (quoting Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., 566 U.S. 66, 72, 79, 132 S.Ct. 1289, 182 L.Ed.2d 321 (2012) ).

To begin the Alice analysis, the court must "articulate what the claims are directed to with enough specificity to ensure the step one inquiry is meaningful." Id. (quoting Thales Visionix Inc. v. United States, 850 F.3d 1343, 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2017) ). Further, "claims are considered in their entirety to ascertain whether their character as a whole is directed to excluded subject matter." Internet Patents Corp. v. Active Network, Inc., 790 F.3d 1343, 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2015). The court "look[s] to whether the claims... focus on a specific means or method that improves the relevant technology or are instead directed to a result or effect that itself is the abstract idea and merely invoke generic processes and machinery." Smart Sys. Innovations, LLC v. Chi. Transit Auth., 873 F.3d 1364, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (quoting McRO, Inc. v. Bandai Namco Games Am. Inc., 837 F.3d 1299, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2016) ).

Here, TTI claims that wireless transmission of content is an abstract idea, and that the asserted '275 patent claims are directed to nothing more. First off, the cases TTI cites in support of this proposition do not hold that wireless transmission is an abstract idea. Affinity Labs of Tex., LLC v. DIRECTV, LLC, 838 F.3d 1253, 1258 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (holding that the concept of providing out-of-region access to regional broadcast content is an abstract idea), cert. denied sub nom. Affinity Labs of Tex., LLC v. DIRECTTV, LLC, ––– U.S. ––––, 137 S.Ct. 1596, 197 L.Ed.2d 736 (2017) ; Affinity Labs of Tex., LLC v. Amazon.com Inc., 838 F.3d 1266, 1271–72 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (holding that the concept of delivering user-selected media content to portable devices is an abstract idea), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 137 S.Ct. 1596, 197 L.Ed.2d 708 (2017). And second, the Federal Circuit has warned against the dangers of over-abstraction, Core Wireless, 880 F.3d at 1361 ("[W]e must be mindful that 'all inventions at some level embody, use, reflect, rest upon, or apply laws of nature, natural phenomena, or abstract ideas.' " (quoting Mayo, 566 U.S. at 71, 132 S.Ct. 1289 ) ), and disapproved of parties' efforts to render abstract objects that are not, id. at 1362 ("The asserted claims in this case are directed to an improved user interface for computing devices, not to the abstract idea of an index, as argued by LG on appeal."). Here, the '275 patent claims are not directed to the transmission of data, but "to garage door openers that wirelessly transmit status information." The Chamberlain Grp., Inc. v. Techtronic Indus. Co., 676 Fed.Appx. 980, 982 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (appeal from this Court's initial claim construction). Having identified what the '275 patent claims are directed to, the Court must now determine whether this object is an abstract idea.

"The Supreme Court has not established a definitive rule to determine what constitutes an 'abstract idea' sufficient to satisfy the first step of the [ Alice ] inquiry," and as such the appropriate analysis "compare[s] claims at issue to those claims already found to be directed to an abstract idea in previous cases."

Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 822 F.3d 1327, 1334 (Fed. Cir. 2016). Post- Alice decisions have found ineligible: paying for mass transit rides with a credit card, Smart Sys. Innovations, LLC v. Chi. Transit Auth., 873 F.3d 1364, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2017) ; "the abstract idea of testing operators of any kind of moving equipment for any kind of physical or mental impairment," Vehicle Intelligence & Safety LLC v. Mercedes–Benz USA, LLC, 635 Fed.Appx. 914, 917 (Fed. Cir. 2015) ; the "abstract idea for increasing sales implemented via 'some unspecified, generic computer,' " DDR Holdings, LLC v. Hotels.com, L.P., 773 F.3d 1245, 1266 ...