Storage Technology Corp. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.
| Citation | 329 F.3d 823 |
| Decision Date | 13 May 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-1232.,02-1232. |
| Parties | STORAGE TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION, Plaintiff/Third Party Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC. and Cisco Technology, Inc., Defendants-Appellees, and Level One Communications, Inc., Third Party Defendant. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit |
Ernie L. Brooks, Brooks & Kushman, P.C., of Southfield, MI, argued for plaintiff-third party plaintiff-appellant. With him on the brief was Thomas A. Lewry.
Matthew D. Powers, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, of Redwood Shores, CA, argued for defendants-appellees. With him on the brief was Edward R. Reines. Of counsel was Sarkis Beudjekian.
Before SCHALL, Circuit Judge, PLAGER, Senior Circuit Judge, and GAJARSA, Circuit Judge.
Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek) owns U.S. Patent Nos. 5,842,040 and 5,566,170, both relating to data communication networks. StorageTek filed a patent infringement action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Cisco Systems, Inc. and Cisco Technology, Inc. (collectively, Cisco) alleging infringement of both patents. After the case was transferred to the Northern District of California, the district court held a Markman hearing and entered a claim construction order. Subsequently, the district court granted Cisco's motions for summary judgment of noninfringement of the '040 and '170 patents. We affirm the district court's judgment of noninfringement of the '170 patent as well as the decision to transfer the case to the Northern District of California. However, because the district court erred in its construction of certain limitations in the '040 patent, we vacate the judgment of noninfringement of the '040 patent and remand for further proceedings.
Modern data communication networks consist of network devices, such as switches and routers, interconnected by high-speed transmission media, such as fiber optic cables. Data flowing through a network is divided into packets for transmission over the network. For example, one e-mail message may be broken down into several packets. In addition to user data, each packet includes a header, which contains several pieces of information, including information necessary for routing the packet through the network to its destination.
As each packet passes through a network device, the network device examines the header information to determine where to send the packet next. The network device may also make other decisions regarding the packet based on a set of rules or procedures known as network policies, which are set by system administrators. One such policy may be that packets belonging to certain types of messages get transmission priority over other packets. Another such policy may be that packets from a particular source are not to be forwarded through the network. Network policy information is typically stored in the main memory of a network device.
The '040 patent, assigned to StorageTek, relates to the efficient enforcement of network policies in a high-speed packet data network. When a packet (referred to in the patent as a protocol data unit, or PDU) arrives at a network device, the processor in the network device determines which network policies apply to the packet. To obviate the need for the processor to retrieve all required network policy information from main memory, which may slow down processing of packets, the invention described in the '040 patent provides a cache memory that stores certain network policy information copied from main memory. A cache memory is a small, usually temporary, memory that can be accessed quickly, often used to store a copy of instructions or data obtained from main memory. Thus in the system described in the '040 patent, network policy information that is used frequently by the processor is stored in cache memory for easy and fast accessibility.
A processor in a network device implementing the invention of the '040 patent examines the header of an arriving packet to determine whether, based on selection criteria, it is related to other packets that have been received. For example, packets containing data from the same e-mail message may be related. If the packet is the first of a group of related packets to be received, the network device determines whether any of the network policies in main memory apply to the packet. If so, policy identification information identifying the instance of network policy to be applied to the packet is copied from main memory into an instance classification cache, also referred to as the identification cache. The patent also describes a second cache, which stores a copy of the instance of network policy itself. When a packet related to the first packet arrives, the identification of a policy to be applied to the new packet is retrieved from the instance classification cache, and that identification information is used to retrieve the actual policy from the second cache.
The two independent claims of the '040 patent at issue in this case, method claim 1 and apparatus claim 18, read (emphasis added to highlight the relevant claim limitations):
1. A policy caching method for use in a communication device, comprising the steps of:
determining an instance of protocol data unit (PDU) network policy from a plurality of policies to be applied to related-received PDUs based on contents of one of the related-received PDUs, wherein the related-received PDUs are a subset of a stream of PDUs and may be distributed throughout said stream of PDUs; and
caching policy identification information identifying the instance of PDU policy which is to be applied to other PDUs of the related-received PDUs.
18. A policy cache for use in a communication device, comprising:
a) exception processing means for determining an instance of protocol data unit (PDU) network policy from a plurality of policies to be applied to related-received PDUs based on contents of one of the related-received PDUs, wherein the related-received PDUs are a subset of a stream of PDUs and may be distributed throughout said stream of PDUs; and
b) cached instance classification means, operatively coupled to the exception processing means, for caching policy identification information identifying the instance of PDU policy which is to be applied to other PDUs of the related-received PDUs.
The '170 patent, also assigned to StorageTek, relates to the forwarding of packets by a network device. When a packet arrives at a network forwarding device, a processor in the device examines and processes the packet to assign it to an outbound network interface for transmission over the next link in the network. The invention of the '170 patent adds a preprocessor to the network forwarding device. Based upon information in the packet header, the preprocessor adds "next operation information" to the header. The packet is then passed to the processor, which forwards the packet based on the "next operation information" in the header. This approach reduces processing time and increases throughput of the network forwarding device.
The two independent claims of the '170 patent at issue in this case, apparatus claim 14 and method claim 23, read (emphasis added to highlight the relevant claim limitations):
14. A protocol data unit forwarding device for use in a communication network to transfer protocol data units within the communication network, comprising:
(a) protocol data unit processor, comprising:
(i) identification means for determining media header information of a protocol data unit which is received from over the communication network;
(ii) validation means, operatively coupled to the identification means, for validating the media header information; and
(iii) modification means, operatively coupled to the identification means, for adding next operation information to the media header information based upon the determined media header information; and
(b) forwarding processor, operatively coupled to the protocol data unit preprocessor, for forwarding the protocol data unit in the communication network based upon the next operation information.
23. A method of operating a forwarding device within a communication network to forward a protocol data unit received by the forwarding device, the method comprising the device-implemented steps of:
(a) in a first processor, performing the steps of:
(a)(i) determining media header information of a protocol data unit based upon a portion of the protocol data unit which is received from over a communication network;
(a)(ii) validating the media header information; and
(a)(iii) adding next operation information to the media header information based upon the determined media header information; and
(b) in a second processor, forwarding the protocol data unit in the communication network based upon the next operation information.
StorageTek sued Cisco in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin alleging infringement of the '040 and '170 patents by Cisco's Net-Flow Feature Acceleration technology and Cisco's Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology, respectively. Cisco asserted a counterclaim for infringement of its own patent as well as declaratory judgment counterclaims for noninfringement, invalidity, and unenforceability of StorageTek's patents. Cisco later stipulated to the dismissal of its infringement and unenforceability counterclaims. The district court granted Cisco's motion to transfer venue pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) and transferred the case to the Northern District of California.
After a Markman hearing, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a claim construction order. Storage Tech. Corp. v. Cisco Sys., Inc., No. C00-1176 (SI) (N.D.Cal. Nov. 27, 2001) (claim construction order). Relevant to this appeal, the district court construed...
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