Personalized Media Communications, LLC v. International Trade Com'n
| Decision Date | 24 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-1160,98-1160 |
| Citation | 161 F.3d 696,48 U.S.P.Q.2d 1880 |
| Parties | PERSONALIZED MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION, Appellee, and DirecTV, Inc., United States Satellite Broadcasting Co., Hughes Network Systems, and Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc., Intervenors, and Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc., Toshiba America Consumer Products, Inc., and Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, Intervenors. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit |
Robert P. Taylor, Howrey & Simon, Menlo Park, California, argued for appellant. With him on the brief were Robert F. Ruyak and Cecilia H. Gonzales, Washington, DC. Of counsel on the brief was Thomas J. Scott, Jr., Hunton & Williams, Washington, DC.
Carl Bretscher, Attorney, Office of General Counsel, U.S. International Trade Commission, Washington, DC, argued for appellee. With him on the brief were Lyn M. Schlitt, General Counsel and James A. Toupin, Deputy General Counsel.
Louis Touton, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Los Angeles, California, argued for intervenors, DIRECTV, Inc., et al. With him on the brief were Victor G. Savikas and Kevin G. McBride. Of counsel was Gregory A. Castanias, Jones, Day, Revis & Pogue, Washington, DC.
Before RICH, MICHEL and LOURIE, Circuit Judges.
Personalized Media Communications, LLC ("PMC") appeals from the final determination of the United States International Trade Commission ("the Commission") that claims 6, 7, and 44 of PMC's patent are not infringed and are invalid for indefiniteness. See In re Certain Digital Satellite Sys. (DSS) Receivers & Components Thereof, No. 337-TA-392 (Int'l Trade Comm. Oct. 20, 1997) (Initial Determination), aff'd in part, (Int'l Trade Comm. Dec. 4, 1997) (Final Determination). Because the Commission erred in concluding that the asserted claims are invalid for indefiniteness and that claim 7 was not infringed, but did not err in concluding that claim 6 was not infringed, we affirm-in-part, reverse-in-part, vacate-in-part, and remand. We decline to address PMC's argument concerning infringement of claim 44.
PMC is the assignee of United States Patent 5,335,277, which pertains generally to systems for use in television broadcasting. The '277 patent specification is quite long; it spans 328 columns and 22 drawing sheets, and contains numerous embodiments of the claimed inventions. Only those embodiments that are necessary to understand the claims at issue are described herein.
The system of the '277 patent includes a unique receiver station that detects and manipulates digital control signals that are embedded in a complex broadcast or cablecast transmission. The specification highlights several benefits that result from the detection and use of the control signals. For example, the control signals can be detected by receiver stations and used to select a specific program from a multi-channel programming transmission. See '277 patent, col. 17, l. 63 to col. 18, l. 2. The control signals can alternatively be used to remotely control the operation of peripheral devices such as VCRs. See id., col. 10, ll. 34-39.
As explained in the specification, a given broadcast can contain several control signals which appear at varying "locations" within the broadcast:
In programming transmissions, given signals may run and repeat, for periods of time, continuously or at regular intervals. Or they may run only occasionally or only once. They may appear in various and varying locations. In television they may appear on one line in the video portion of the transmission such as line 20 of the vertical interval, 1 or on a portion of one line, or on more than one line, and they will probably lie outside the range of the television picture displayed on a normally tuned television set. In television and radio they may appear in a portion of the audio range that is not normally rendered in a form audible to the human ear.... In all cases, signals may convey information in discrete words, transmitted at separate times or in separate locations, that [the] receiver apparatus must assemble in order to receive one complete instruction.
Id., col. 9, l. 61 to col. 10, l. 16. Because the location of a given control signal can vary within the transmission, a controller within the system can be programmed or "preinformed" with this location information or other information concerning the control signal in order to identify only the relevant control signal while disregarding other signals. This is also explained in the specification, which notes that "the pattern of the composition, timing, and location of embedded signals may vary in such fashions that only receiving apparatus that are [sic] preinformed regarding the patterns that obtain at any given time will be able to process the signals correctly." Id., col. 9, ll. 43-47.
These aspects of the disclosure are addressed in asserted claims 6 and 7 of the '277 patent, which read as follows:
6. A system for identifying a predetermined signal in a television program transmission in which a plurality of signal types are transmitted[,] said signal being transmitted in a varying location or a varying timing pattern, said television program transmission being separately defined from standard analog video and audio television, said system comprising:
a digital detector for receiving said transmission and detecting said predetermined signal in said transmission based on either a specific location or a specific time; and
a controller operatively connected to said detector for causing said detector to detect said predetermined signal based on either a specific location or time, said controller being programmed with either the varying locations or the varying timing pattern of said signal.
7. A system for locating or identifying a specific signal in a television program transmission that contains digital information and for assembling information a digital detector for receiving at least some information of said transmission and detecting said specific signal at a specific location or time;
contained in said specific signal, said transmission being separately defined from standard analog video and audio television, said system comprising:
a storage device operatively connected to said digital detector for receiving detected digital information of said specific signal and assembling at least some of said digital information into either information or instruction message units; and
a controller operatively connected to said detector and said storage device for causing said detector to locate, detect or output said signal and for controlling a technique used by said storage device to assemble message units, said controller being programmed with information of the composition of said signal or with either the varying location or the varying timing pattern of said signal.
Another aspect of the disclosed system relates to the ability to create a "video overlay." In one example provided in the specification, viewers see a user-customized version of a weekly television program "Wall Street Week" in which the performance of their personal stock portfolios is shown as a video overlay on top of a graph showing the market's overall performance. The details of this procedure are explained as follows:
[The TV monitor] displays the conventional television image and the sound of the transmitted "Wall Street Week" program. During this time the program may show the so-called "talking head" of the host as he describes the behavior of the stock market over the course of the week. Then the host says, "Now as we turn to the graphs, here is what the Dow Jones Industrials did in the week just past," and a studio generated graphic is transmitted. FIG. 1B shows the image of said graphic as it appears on the video screen of the TV monitor. Then the host says, "And here is what your portfolio did." At this point, an instruction signal is generated at said program originating studio, embedded in the programming transmission, and transmitted. Said signal is identified by [the decoder at the receiver station], transferred to [the microcomputer,] and executed by the microcomputer [ ] at the system level as the statement, "GRAPHICS ON." Said signal instructs [the microcomputer] to overlay the graphic information in its graphics card onto the received composite video information and transmit the combined information to [the TV monitor]. [The TV monitor] then displays the image shown in FIG. 1C which is the microcomputer generated graphic of the subscriber's own portfolio performance overlaid on the studio generated graphic.
Id., col. 16, ll. 21-48. Other embodiments disclose the use of a "local input" that may be used by the customer to interact with the programming content in a more flexible manner. See, e.g., id., col. 161, l. 53 et seq.
These aspects of the disclosure are addressed in asserted claim 44, which reads as follows:
44. A television receiver system comprising:
a television receiver for receiving a selected broadcast or cable cast television transmission and transferring television programming in said transmission to a television display;
an input device for inputting information of the reaction of a viewer to specific television program content;
a digital detector operatively connected to a mass medium receiver for detecting digital information in a mass medium transmission and transferring some of said detected information to a processor[;]
a processor operatively connected to said detector and said input device for generating and outputting information of a video overlay that is related to said television programming or said reaction information; and
a television display device operatively connected to said processor for receiving and displaying said video overlay.
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