Desper Products, Inc. v. QSound Labs, Inc.
| Decision Date | 18 September 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-1163,97-1163 |
| Parties | DESPER PRODUCTS, INC. and Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. QSOUND LABS, INC., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit |
Ira M. Siegel, Ladas & Parry, Los Angeles, California, argued for plaintiffs-appellees. Of counsel was James C. Yoon, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto, California.
Mark Norman Mutterperl, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellant. With him on the brief were Robert J. Koch and Karen A. Ballotta, Washington, DC, and David H. Tannenbaum, Dallas, Texas.
Before PLAGER, CLEVENGER, and GAJARSA, Circuit Judges.
Desper Products, Inc. and Spatializer Audio Laboratories, Inc. (collectively "Desper") sued QSound Labs, Inc. ("QSound"), owner of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,105,462 (the '462 patent) and 5,208,860 (the '860 patent), in the United States District Court for the Central District of California (No. CV 94-7276). Desper sought a declaratory judgment that Desper's "Spatializer" product does not infringe either patent and that the patents are invalid. QSound counterclaimed for patent infringement. The district court entered summary judgment for Desper, and QSound appeals. Because the district court correctly interpreted the disputed claim language and properly concluded that QSound surrendered subject matter within which Desper's "Spatializer" product falls, we affirm the judgment for Desper.
This case involves two patents, the '462 patent and the '860 patent, both entitled The district court adopted all of the special master's recommendations, except the one in which the master thought there existed a genuine dispute of material fact. The district court concluded that Desper was entitled to summary judgment of non-infringement on all the asserted claims. The district court entered final judgment of non-infringement in Desper's favor under Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b). QSound now appeals that ruling.
"Sound Imaging Method and Apparatus." At the trial level, the case was assigned, with the consent of the parties, to a special master. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment with regard to the question of infringement. After considering both parties' submissions, and after conducting an extensive hearing during which both sides put on expert testimony, the special master recommended that judgment of non-infringement be entered in favor of Desper, with one exception in which the special master deemed the infringement of certain claims to involve a disputed question of fact precluding summary judgment.
Both of QSound's patents stem from a common application and, as such, have a common written description; only the claims differ between the two. The patents describe an audio sound image location system that processes a monaural sound signal in such a way as to create an illusion that the source of the sound is located someplace in a three-dimensional space. The patented invention gives an audiophile the ability to locate individual sounds at different locations in space in order to create a "virtual symphony."
At the heart of the patented system is a so-called "sound processor." A block diagram of a sound image location system incorporating two such sound processors is shown in Fig. 16 in the patents and is reproduced below:
A monaural signal is provided at terminal 1502. That signal is separated into two individual "channel signals." Each channel signal is then processed through a separate "channel." One channel includes sound processor 1501 while the other includes sound processor 1502. Each sound processor alters the phase and amplitude of the channel signal passed through the respective channel. The output of each sound processor can be coupled to a transducer (not shown in Fig. 16), otherwise known as a speaker, to reproduce the sound. By altering the phase and amplitude of the channel signals, the patented system allegedly can create the illusion that the sound originates from a point in 3-dimensional space away from the speakers, even though the sound actually originates from the speakers.
As is well known in the art, a transfer function is the relationship between the output A schematic diagram of the preferred embodiment of the patented sound processor is shown in the patents at Fig. 18a, which is reproduced below:
of a component in a system to its input. The transfer function in the preferred embodiment of the patents was empirically derived through a laborious process, which is described in detail in the patents. The patents stress the importance of the change in amplitude and phase of one of the channel signals relative to the other. As a result of this relative relationship between the signals, one of the sound processors can be significantly reduced or even eliminated by performing all of the amplitude alteration and phase shifting on one of the channel signals. As described in the patents, the transfer functions, themselves, can be changed by position control parameters that are provided to the sound processors via terminal 1505. These position control parameters give a user the added flexibility of moving the apparent point of origin of a sound, giving a similar effect as the adjustment of "balance" or "fade" controls would in a conventional stereo.
The phase shifting and amplitude alteration is performed in filters 1610 and 1630, which are specifically designed to impart a unique and different change in each of a plurality of successive frequency bands that comprise the audio spectrum (i.e., 20-20,000 Hz). In one embodiment of the sound processor, the bands are 40 Hz in width, thus creating approximately 500 bands within the audio spectrum. It is critical both for the operation and patentability of the invention that the phase shift and amplitude change for each of the frequency bands be individually specified. The ability to separately alter the phase and amplitude of the channel signals for each frequency band is at the heart of the invention. To implement this approach, the patent describes a filter embodiment that uses a plurality of cascaded bandpass filters, with each bandpass filter designed to impart a pre-determined phase shift and amplitude change to a corresponding frequency band.
The sound processor design shown in Fig. 18a includes six potentiometers (1651-1654, 1657, 1658) to give the system added flexibility. In the preferred embodiment, four of the potentiometers (1651-1654) are controlled by a single two-axis joystick so that an operator can vary the apparent position of the sound in a smooth and continuous manner. The four potentiometers operate as follows. The monaural signal is simultaneously fed to the potentiometers 1651 and 1652. The two potentiometers 1651 and 1652 work differentially, so that an increase in one produces a corresponding decrease in the other and vice versa. The output of filter 1610 is fed to a differentially controlled potentiometer, 1653, which attenuates the output of the filter.
The companion to potentiometer 1653 is potentiometer 1654, which is coupled to the output of filter 1630 in order to attenuate its output. The two potentiometers, 1653 and 1654, operate in the same complimentary manner as potentiometers 1651 and 1652.
The output of potentiometer 1653 is passed through a buffer amplifier 1655 to another potentiometer 1657 and from there to reversing switch 1659, "which allows the filter signals to be fed directly or interchanged, to first inputs of summing elements 1660 and 1670." '462 patent, col. 13, ll. 12-14. Assuming that switch 1659 is in the position shown in Fig. 18a, the output of potentiometer 1657 is fed to summing element 1670 while the output of potentiometer 1658, which acts in unison with potentiometer 1657, is fed to summing element 1660, where it is summed with the attenuated monaural signal.
From the summing elements, the channel signals proceed to their respective output terminals 1688 and 1689. The embodiment shown in Fig. 18a permits the operator to individually select different signals by changing the settings of switches 1682, 1685, and 1691, the details of which are not relevant to the present dispute.
Before the district court, QSound asserted the four independent claims of the two patents: claims 1 and 7 of the '462 patent; and claims 1 and 5 of the '860 patent. The special master, in a thorough opinion, interpreted a number of disputed words and phrases in the asserted claims. 1 The district court adopted most of the special master's findings and recommendations. While QSound challenges many of these conclusions, we need only consider a few of the disputed phrases because they are dispositive. Each of the independent claims is reproduced below with the disputed claim language emphasized.
1. A method for producing and locating an apparent origin of a selected sound from an electrical signal corresponding to the selected sound in a predetermined and localized position anywhere within the three-dimensional space containing a listener, comprising the steps of:
separating said electrical signal into respective first and second channel signals;
altering the amplitude and shifting the phase of the signal in both said first and second channel signals while maintaining said phase and amplitude differential therebetween for successive discrete frequency bands across the audio spectrum and each successive phase shift being different than the preceding phase shift, relative to zero degrees, thereby producing first channel and second channel modified signals and creating a phase differential and an amplitude differential between the two channel signals;
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