Chamberlain Group v. Skylink Tech., Inc.

• Decision Date: 31 August 2004
• Docket Number: No. 04-1118.,04-1118.
• Citation: 381 F.3d 1178
• Parties: The CHAMBERLAIN GROUP, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SKYLINK TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

Page 1178

381 F.3d 1178

The CHAMBERLAIN GROUP, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SKYLINK TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 04-1118.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

DECIDED: August 31, 2004.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied October 22, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, J.

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Karl R. Fink, Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery, of Chicago, Illinois, argued for plaintiff-appellant. With him on the brief were John F. Flannery, Rudy I. Kratz and Michael G. Vranicar.

Richard de Bodo, Irell & Manella LLP, of Los Angeles, CA, argued for defendant-appellee. With him on the brief were Andra Barmash Greene, David Nimmer, Peter Christensen and David Djavaherian, of Newport Beach, CA.

Jonathan Band, Morrison & Foerster, LLP, of Washington, DC, for amicus curiae Computer & Communications Industry Association. With him on the brief was Matthew Schruers.

Jennifer M. Urban, Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic, University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), of Berkeley, CA, for amicus curiae Consumers Union. With her on the brief was Jason M. Schultz, Electronic Frontier Foundation, of San Francisco, CA.

Before GAJARSA, LINN, and PROST, Circuit Judges.

GAJARSA, Circuit Judge.

The Chamberlain Group, Inc. ("Chamberlain") appeals the November 13, 2003 summary judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ("District Court") in favor of Skylink Technologies, Inc. ("Skylink"), finding that Skylink is not violating the anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), 17 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq., and dismissing all other claims, including claims of patent infringement. Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Skylink Techs., Inc., 292 F.Supp.2d 1040 (N.D.Ill.2003) ("Chamberlain II"). That same court, in an earlier ruling, denied Chamberlain's motion for summary judgment on its DMCA claims. Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Skylink Techs., Inc., 292 F.Supp.2d 1023 (N.D.Ill.2003) ("Chamberlain I"). Chamberlain does not appeal that denial of its summary judgment motion.

Chamberlain's claims at issue stem from its allegation that the District Court incorrectly construed the DMCA as placing a burden upon Chamberlain to prove that the circumvention of its technological measures enabled unauthorized access to its copyrighted software. But Skylink's accused device enables only uses that copyright law explicitly authorizes, and is therefore presumptively legal. Chamberlain has neither proved nor alleged a connection between Skylink's accused circumvention device and the protections that the copyright laws afford Chamberlain capable of overcoming that presumption. Chamberlain's failure to meet this burden alone compels a legal ruling in Skylink's favor. We therefore affirm the District Court's summary judgment in favor of Skylink.

BACKGROUND

A. The Applicable Statute

Chamberlain sued Skylink, alleging violations of the patent and copyright laws. Chamberlain's second amended complaint, dated March 26, 2003, enumerated eight causes of action against Skylink, including the infringement of three patents. The matter on appeal involves only Chamberlain's allegation that Skylink is violating the DMCA, specifically the anti-trafficking provision of § 1201(a)(2). The District Court first denied Chamberlain's motion for summary judgment of its DMCA claim, Chamberlain I, and then granted Skylink's motion for summary judgment on the DMCA claim. Chamberlain II. The District Court also dismissed all other counts.

The District Court's ruling, along with the appellate briefs that the parties and amici filed with this court, raise numerous provisions of the DMCA for our consideration. The key provisions at issue, however, are all in § 1201(a).

§ 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems

(a) Violations regarding circumvention of technological measures.

(1) (A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title....

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;

(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or

(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

(3) As used in this subsection—

(A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

17 U.S.C. § 1201(a).

B. The Dispute

The District Court reviewed the basic facts and the underlying technology in its dismissal of Chamberlain's motion for summary judgment. Though the parties emphasize different aspects of the District Court's factual discussion, neither one questions its general accuracy.

The technology at issue involves Garage Door Openers (GDOs). A GDO typically consists of a hand-held portable transmitter and a garage door opening device mounted in a homeowner's garage. The opening device, in turn, includes both a receiver with associated signal processing software and a motor to open or close the garage door. In order to open or close the garage door, a user must activate the transmitter, which sends a radio frequency (RF) signal to the receiver located on the opening device. Once the opener receives a recognized signal, the signal processing software directs the motor to open or close the garage door.

When a homeowner purchases a GDO system, the manufacturer provides both an opener and a transmitter. Homeowners who desire replacement or spare transmitters can purchase them in the aftermarket. Aftermarket consumers have long been able to purchase "universal transmitters" that they can program to interoperate with their GDO system regardless of make or model. Skylink and Chamberlain are the only significant distributors of universal GDO transmitters.¹ Chamberlain places no explicit restrictions on the types of transmitter that the homeowner may use with its system at the time of purchase. Chamberlain's customers therefore assume that they enjoy all of the rights associated with the use of their GDOs and any software embedded therein that the copyright laws and other laws of commerce provide.

This dispute involves Chamberlain's Security+ line of GDOs and Skylink's Model 39 universal transmitter. Chamberlain's Security+ GDOs incorporate a copyrighted "rolling code" computer program that constantly changes the transmitter signal needed to open the garage door. Skylink's Model 39 transmitter, which does not incorporate rolling code, nevertheless allows users to operate Security+ openers. Chamberlain alleges that Skylink's transmitter renders the Security+ insecure by allowing unauthorized users to circumvent the security inherent in rolling codes. Of greater legal significance, however, Chamberlain contends that because of this property of the Model 39, Skylink is in violation of the anti-trafficking clause of the DMCA's anticircumvention provisions, specifically § 1201(a)(2).

The code in a standard (i.e., non-rolling code) GDO transmitter is unique but fixed. Thus, according to Chamberlain, the typical GDO is vulnerable to attack by burglars who can open the garage door using a "code grabber." According to Chamberlain, code grabbers allow burglars in close proximity to a homeowner operating her garage door to record the signal sent from the transmitter to the opener, and to return later, replay the recorded signal, and open the garage door. Chamberlain concedes, however, that code grabbers are more theoretical than practical burgling devices; none of its witnesses had either firsthand knowledge of a single code grabbing problem or familiarity with data demonstrating the existence of a problem. Nevertheless, Chamberlain claims to have developed its rolling code system specifically to prevent code grabbing.²

The essence of the rolling code system is that the transmitted signals are broken into fixed and variable (or "rolling") components. The entire transmitted signal is a bit string. The fixed component serves to identify the transmitter. The rolling component cycles through a lengthy cycle of bit strings only some of which are capable of opening the door at any given time, ostensibly so that a burglar replaying a grabbed code is unlikely to send a valid signal—and therefore unlikely to open the garage door.

A user wishing to set up a new transmitter for use with her Security+ GDO must switch the opener to "program mode" and send a signal from the transmitter to the opener. The opener stores both the fixed and rolling components of the transmitted signal. When the user switches the opener back to "operate mode," the system is set and the user may operate the opener with the newly programmed transmitter. In Chamberlain's transmitter, a computer program increases the rolling code by a factor of three each time the user activates the transmitter. When the transmitted signal reaches the receiver, a program in the opener checks to see...