GoDaddy.com, LLC, Plaintiff,
v.
RPost Communications Limited, et al., Defendants.
No. CV-14-00126-PHX-JAT
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA
January 19, 2016
ORDER
Before the Court is Defendants'1 Opening Claim Construction Brief (Doc. 114), Plaintiff GoDaddy.com, LLC ("GoDaddy")'s Responsive Claim Construction Brief (Doc. 117), and Defendants' Reply Claim Construction Brief (Doc. 119). On October 22, 2015, the Court conducted a Markman Hearing pursuant to Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370 (1996). Consistent with Markman, the Court now construes the claims in the patents-at-issue: (1) U.S. Patent No. 8,161,104 (filed April 17, 2012) (the "'104 Patent"); (2) U.S. Patent No. 8,209,389 (filed June 26, 2012) (the "'389 Patent"); (3) U.S. Patent No. 8,224,913 (filed July 17, 2012) (the "'913 Patent"); (4) U.S. Patent No. 8,468,198 (filed June 18, 2013) (the "'198 Patent"); (5) U.S. Patent No. 8,468,199 (filed June 18, 2013) (the "'199 Patent"); and (6) U.S. Patent No. 6,182,219 (filed January 30, 2001) (the "'219 Patent").2
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Table of Contents
I. Background .............................................................................................................. 4
II. Legal Standard ......................................................................................................... 5
III. Table of Construed Terms for the Tomkow Patents ............................................ 8
IV. Table of Construed Terms for the Feldbau Patent .............................................. 19
V. Table of Construed Terms on Which the Parties Agree ...................................... 26
VI. Construction of Disputed Claim Terms in the Tomkow Patents ........................ 27
A. "message" ............................................................................................................... 27
B. "server" ................................................................................................................... 30
C. "a link" ................................................................................................................... 35
D. "an indication that the message has been opened by (delivered to) a recipient" ..................................................................................................................... 36
E. "an indication of receipt of the message by the recipient (recipient processor)" .................................................................................................................. 45
F. "an indication of the failure to deliver the message to the recipient" .................... 47
G. "executing the link when the message is opened at the recipient to control the server to provide an indication that the message has been opened at the recipient" ..................................................................................................................... 48
H. "the link being configured to execute automatically when the message is opened at the recipient processor to control the server to provide an indication at the server that the message has been opened at the recipient processor" ............... 53
I. "the link configured to execute when the link is activated at the recipient to provide an indication that the message has been opened by (delivered to) a recipient" ..................................................................................................................... 54
J. "executing the link when the link is activated at the recipient to control the server to provide an indication that the message has been delivered to the recipient" ..................................................................................................................... 56
K. "wherein the link is executed when the link is activated at the recipient to control the server to provide an indication that the message has been opened at (delivered to) the recipient" ........................................................................................ 57
L. "authenticatible information" ................................................................................. 58
M. "mail transport protocol dialog" ............................................................................ 62
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N. "at least a portion of a mail transport protocol dialog (data transport dialog) generated (by the electronic mail system) during transmission of the message from the server to the recipient (processor)" .............................................................. 65
O. "SMTP and ESMTP protocol dialog" .................................................................... 67
P. "data transport dialog" ............................................................................................ 68
Q. "before the message is authenticated (any authentication of the message) by the server" ................................................................................................................... 69
R. "Mail Transport Agent" ......................................................................................... 72
S. "sender" and "recipient" ......................................................................................... 74
T. "originating processor" and "recipient processor" ................................................. 77
U. "providing proof of receipt of the message by the recipient processor" ............... 80
V. "the link configured to execute when the message is opened at the recipient" ..... 84
W. "the server (being) displaced from the recipient (recipient processor)" ............... 84
X. "the server constructs authenticatible information related to the message" .......... 85
VII. Construction of Disputed Claim Terms in the Feldbau Patent ......................... 87
A. "authenticating the dispatch and (the) contents of the dispatch" ........................... 87
B. "authentication data" .............................................................................................. 92
C. "dispatch record data" ............................................................................................ 96
D. "an indicia of time of successful transmission of the dispatch to the recipient" ..................................................................................................................... 99
E. "sender" and "recipient" ........................................................................................ 101
F. "processor for associating" .................................................................................... 103
G. "means for providing an indicia of a time of successful transmission of the dispatch to the destination receiving system, said time related indicia being recorded by the authenticator and provided in a manner resistant to or indicative of tampering by either of the sender and the recipient" ............................ 122
H. "means for securing at least part of the authentication data against tampering by the sender and the recipient; wherein the processor is combined with the means for securing" ..................................................................................... 127
I. "source transmitting system" and "destination transmitting system" .................... 136
VIII. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 139
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I. Background
The Tomkow Patents and Feldbau Patent claim, in broad terms, various systems and methods for tracking, authenticating, and verifying the transmission, delivery or non-delivery, opening, forwarding, content, and time events associated with an electronic message.
The Tomkow Patents are all rooted in the same parent application, which issued as U.S. Patent No. 7,966,372 ("'372 Patent"). Because the Tomkow Patents stem from the '372 Patent, they all share a similar specification and file history. The Field of Invention for each Tomkow Patent is directed to "a system and method for verifying delivery and content of an electronic message and, more particularly, to a system and method of later providing proof regarding the delivery and content of an e-mail message." '199 Patent col. 1 ll. 22-26.
As a general overview of the individual Tomkow Patents, the '104 Patent describes a system and method of verifying the opening of an electronic message sent from a sender to a recipient through a server. The '389 Patent furnishes a system and method to verify the receipt of an electronic message sent from a sender to a recipient through a server. The '913 Patent sets forth a system and method of verifying the delivery or non-delivery of an electronic message from a sender to a recipient through a server. The '198 Patent—a continuation of the '104 Patent—claims a system and method of verifying the opening and delivery of an electronic message sent from a sender to a recipient through a server. Finally, the '199 Patent—a continuation of the '389 Patent—provides a system and method of verifying the failure to deliver an electronic message sent from a sender to a recipient through a server.
In a similar manner, the Feldbau Patent is disclosed as "a method and apparatus for authenticating the dispatch and the contents of dispatched information in general." '219 Patent col. 1 ll. 6-8. In other words, the Feldbau Patent provides an apparatus and method of proving that the sender of a dispatch sent it to a particular recipient at a particular time and that it had a particular content.
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II. Legal Standard
A patent includes two basic components: (1) a written description of the invention, which is referred to as the "specification" of the patent, and (2) the patent claims. The claims of a patent define the scope of the invention to which the patentee is entitled. See Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc). "The purpose of claim construction is to 'determin[e] the meaning and scope of the patent claims asserted to be...
