Ignite United States, LLC v. Pac. Mkt. Int'l, LLC

• Decision Date: 29 May 2018
• Docket Number: No. 09 C 03339,09 C 03339
• Parties: IGNITE USA, LLC, Plaintiff, v. PACIFIC MARKET INTERNATIONAL, LLC, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

IGNITE USA, LLC, Plaintiff, v. PACIFIC MARKET INTERNATIONAL, LLC, Defendant.

No. 09 C 03339

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

May 29, 2018

Judge Edmond E. Chang

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Ignite USA, LLC makes and sells travel mugs for hot beverages. Ignite owns Patent No. 7,997,442 (the '442 patent), which relates to a travel container with at least two trigger-actuated apertures in the lid, one for drinking and the other for venting pressure. Ignite alleges that Pacific Market International, LLC (which goes by its acronym, PMI) has infringed the patent.¹ The parties have briefed the construction of the patent's disputed claims, and the Court held an in-court claim-construction hearing. The construction of the disputed terms is set forth below.

I. Background

A. Procedural History

This case pits two competitors in the travel mug industry against each other. R. 1, Compl. ¶¶ 2, 9.² Ignite owns the '442 patent, which was issued in August 2011 and covers a "travel container having drinking orifice and vent aperture." R. 121-1,Joint App'x (JA) 1 ('442 Patent). The '442 patent consists of 19 claims. Id. In February 2014, Ignite sued PMI for making products that allegedly infringed the '442 patent, specifically Claims 16-19. Compl. ¶ 14. In April 2014, PMI filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), challenging the validity of the '442 patent. R. 27, Def.'s Mot. to Stay. The PTO granted the petition for IPR in September 2014. R. 42, Notice of Institution of IPR. This action was stayed pending the IPR. R. 39, Opinion and Order (May 29, 2014). The PTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued its Final Written Decision in September 2015, finding all claims for which the PTAB instituted review—Claims 1, 2, 4-10, and 14-19—to be unpatentable as obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.³ R. 62, Notice of Suppl., Exh. 1 at 2, '442 Final Written Decision. Ignite then amended its complaint, alleging that PMI infringed two different claims of the '442 patent that had not been reviewed or invalidated: Claims 3 and 12. R. 73, Am. Compl ¶ 15.

The parties identified four disputed terms for construction in Claims 3 and 12. R. 122, Def.'s Br. at 3; R. 126, Pl.'s Resp. Br. at 1. After the parties briefed theissue, the Court held a Markman hearing on June 1, 2017, R. 139, and accepted additional post-hearing submissions, R. 149, 151.

B. The '442 Patent

The '442 patent discloses a hot beverage travel mug that addresses the need to release hot gases or vapors inside the mug before the user takes a drink from the mug. JA 19 at 1:30-39, 1:63-2:3. The specification describes a container with at least two trigger-actuated apertures in the lid: a vent aperture and a drink aperture. Id. at 1:42-54. When the user presses the trigger, the vent aperture opens first, releasing the hot gases and vapors, and only after that does the drink aperture open. JA 19 at 1:63-2:3. This process is called "two-stage venting" or "pre-venting," and allows the hot vapors or gases to escape out of the vent opening instead of exiting through the drink aperture and hitting the user. JA 29 at 21:4-14, 22:50-65; Def.'s Br. at 1-2; Pl.'s Resp. Br. at 2.

In the IPR, the PTAB invalidated all of the '442 patent's claims related to pre-venting. Def.'s Notice of Suppl., Exh. 1 at 2, '442 Final Written Decision. Claims 3 and 12 do not claim the process of pre-venting, but rather claim specific embodiments of pre-venting mugs. JA 30 at 23:52-55, 24:32-35. Claims 3 and 12 are recited below, with the disputed terms emphasized in bold italics.

Claim 3: The drinking container of claim 1,⁴ further comprising a vent chamber between the vent seal and the vent aperture, the vent chamberhaving a cross-sectional area greater than a cross-sectional area of the vent aperture.

Claim 12: The drinking container of claim 8,⁵ further comprising a vent chamber between the vent seal and the vent aperture, and wherein the trigger extends partially through the vent chamber.

The embodiment described by these claims allows for the size of the vent chamber to be larger than the size of the vent aperture so that gas or vapor pressure may be lowered or dissipated in the vent chamber, which addresses the "chimney effect," where warm gases or vapors can effectively be sucked out of the vent aperture. Pl.'s Resp. Br. at 2-3.

II. Legal Standard

To construe claim language in a patent, courts "first look to, and primarily rely on, the intrinsic evidence," which "includes the claims themselves, the specification, and the prosecution history of the patent." Sunovion Pharms., Inc. v. Teva Pharms. USA, Inc., 731 F.3d 1271, 1276 (Fed. Cir. 2013) (cleaned up).⁶ When analyzing the intrinsic evidence, the Court begins with the language of the claims themselves, applying a "heavy presumption that claim terms carry their ordinarymeaning as viewed by one of ordinary skill in the art." Altiris, Inc. v. Symantec Corp., 318 F.3d 1363, 1369 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (cleaned up). A claim term takes on its ordinary meaning unless the patentee demonstrates an intent to deviate from that meaning, such as by "acting as his own lexicographer," or by "disavowing the full scope of a claim term either in the specification or during prosecution." Starhome GmbH v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 743 F.3d 849, 856 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (cleaned up).

"In most situations, an analysis of the intrinsic evidence alone will resolve any ambiguity in a disputed claim term." Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, Inc., 90 F.3d 1576, 1583 (Fed. Cir. 1996); see also Sunovion Pharms., 731 F.3d at 1276 (noting that the intrinsic evidence is "usually dispositive") (citations omitted). In those cases, "it is improper to rely on extrinsic evidence," which includes dictionary definitions, expert testimony, inventor testimony, and other "evidence which is external to the patent and file history." Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1583-84 (citations omitted). Extrinsic evidence, however, may be considered "if needed to assist in determining the meaning or scope of technical terms in the claims." Pall Corp. v. Micron Separations, Inc., 66 F.3d 1211, 1216 (Fed. Cir. 1995) (citation omitted). In other words, it may be consulted to ensure that a court's construction of a claim "is not inconsistent with clearly expressed, plainly apposite and widely held understandings in the pertinent technical field." Plant Genetic Sys., N.V. v. DeKalb Genetics Corp., 315 F.3d 1335, 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (citation and quotations omitted). Extrinsic evidence in general, however, is considered "less reliable than the patent and its prosecution history in determining how to read claim terms,"SkinMedica, Inc. v. Histogen Inc., 727 F.3d 1187, 1195 (Fed. Cir. 2013) (citation and quotations omitted), and "may not be used to vary or contradict the claim language" and specification, Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1584 (citation omitted).

III. Analysis

A. Vent Chamber

The first dispute is over the meaning of the claim term "vent chamber." Ignite proposes construing the term as "a space having an entrance and an exit for lowering the pressure of vapor or gas." Pl.'s Resp. Br. at 5. PMI proposes construing it as "a space to lower the pressure of vapor or gas." Def.'s Br. at 4. The parties' dispute therefore centers on whether the construction should include the structural elements, "an entrance and an exit." For the following reasons, the Court adopts PMI's proposed construction.

Ignite argues that its proposed definition is taken directly from the specification and should be read into the claims. Pl.'s Resp. Br. at 5 (quoting JA 27 at 17:59-64) ("The vent chamber 738 has a first entrance aperture 739 at one end that provides an entrance to the vent chamber 738 from the liquid receptacle 516 of the container body 512 [and] a second exit aperture (the vent aperture 682) ..."); Pl.'s Resp. Br. at 7 (quoting JA 25 at 13:18-23) ("Gas and/or liquid flows through the third aperture 180 (the entrance) in the lower lid 168 and into the vent chamber 238 for dispelling through the vent hole 182 (the exit) in the upper lid 166.") (cleaned up). It is true that claims are to be read in light of the specification, which provides the most important context for a person of ordinary skill in the art. SeePhillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2005). And all embodiments described in the specification have an aperture through which vapor or gas enters the vent chamber and an aperture through which it exits. See JA 25 at 13:18-23 (describing the embodiment depicted in Figures 1-12); JA 27 at 17:59-64 (describing the embodiment depicted in Figures 13-18); see also R. 142, 6/1/17 Hr'g Tr. 22:17-24:12 (describing how the vent chamber in each embodiment discussed contains an entrance and exit for gas). That said, Ignite's argument fails for several reasons.

Simply because "claims are interpreted in light of the specification does not mean that everything expressed in the specification must be read into all the claims." Teleflex, Inc. v. Ficosa N. Am. Corp., 299 F.3d 1313, 1326 (Fed. Cir. 2002) (internal citations omitted); see also SRI Int'l v. Matsushita Elec. Corp. of Am., 775 F.2d 1107, 1121 (Fed. Cir. 1985) ("If everything in the specification were required to be read into the claims, or if structural claims were to be limited to devices operated precisely as a specification-described embodiment is operated, there would be no need for claims."). The patent itself notes that the "present examples and embodiments, therefore, are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein." JA 30 at 23:23-26. Nowhere in the patent's 19 claims is "vent chamber" defined as "having an entrance and an exit." Similarly, nowhere in the specification is vent chamber definitively defined as "a space having an entrance and an exit for lowering the pressure of vapor or gas": it does...