Imatec, Ltd. v. Apple Computer, Inc.
| Decision Date | 17 January 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 98 Civ. 1058(JGK).,98 Civ. 1058(JGK). |
| Citation | 81 F.Supp.2d 471 |
| Parties | IMATEC, LTD. and Hanoch Shalit, Plaintiffs, v. APPLE COMPUTER, INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Eliot S. Gerber, Wyatt, Gerber, Meller & O'Rourke, LLP, New York City, for plaintiffs.
Daniel Johnson, Jr., Fenwick & West, LLP, Palo Alto, CA, for defendant.
The plaintiffs, Imatec, Ltd. ("Imatec") and Hanoch Shalit ("Dr.Shalit"), bring this action alleging that the defendant, Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple"), has infringed a series of patents owned by Dr. Shalit and, for a period, exclusively licensed or assigned to Imatec. Now pending before the Court are two motions brought by the defendant: a motion to dismiss for lack of standing, and a motion for summary judgment.
The technologies at issue in this action concern "color matching ." Color matching technologies are intended to ensure that an image displayed by one electronic output device (such as a computer monitor) appears identically, or as close thereto as possible, when displayed by another electronic output device (such as a laser printer). Such technologies are necessary because different output devices have different color characteristics. Color characteristics vary across classes of output devices, and across particular devices within any given class. Laser printers, for example, produce colors differently than do computer monitors, and one laser printer may render a given source image differently from another laser printer. See Declaration of Maureen C. Stone, dated April 12, 1999 ("Stone Decl."), ¶¶ 7-9, 14; see also U.S. Patent No. 5,345,315, col. 3:5-25.
Perceived color is produced in two fundamentally different ways. "Additive color" is produced when a light source is caused to glow with a combination of the primary colors red, green, and blue. Devices that generate additive color, such as computer monitors, are referred to as "RGB" devices because they combine the primary colors red, green, and blue to produce a given color. "Subtractive color" is produced when light from a light source is reflected by a surface whose pigments absorb certain wavelengths but not others. Devices that generate subtractive color, such as laser printers, are referred to as "CMYK" devices because they combine the primary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow, as well as black, to produce a given color. See Stone Decl., ¶¶ 9-11.
Every electronically generated image comprises many "pixels," much as a pointillist painting comprises many discrete brush stokes. Each individual pixel is characterized by a particular combination of red, green and blue, or, depending on the output device, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The relative amounts of red, green and blue or cyan, magenta, yellow and black describe the color of a given pixel as generated by a particular output device. Such descriptions, however, are "device-dependent," describing how the color is generated by a particular output device, not how the color is perceived by a viewer. Thus, a particular combination of red, green and blue values displayed on one monitor may appear differently when displayed on another monitor. See id., ¶¶ 10-12.
In contrast to device-dependent values, which describe how a color is generated by a particular device, "device-independent" values describe how a color is perceived by a standard, hypothetical viewer. Device-independent color values are expressed as points in a three-dimensional coordinate system known as a "color space." One such device-independent color space is called "CIE XYZ," where "CIE" refers to the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage, the scientific organization that sponsored its development, and "XYZ" refers to the three axes of the coordinate system. See id., ¶¶ 15-17.
No electronic output device can generate all of the colors perceptible to the human eye. Moreover, the range of colors that an output device is capable of producing, known as the device's color "gamut," varies across devices. RGB devices, such as monitors, are incapable of generating all of the colors that CMYK devices can produce; conversely, CMYK devices, such as printers, are incapable of generating all of the colors that RGB devices can produce. Because of each device's inherent limitations, a given source image may not be fully reproducible on a given output device. As a result, certain colors in the source image may have to be approximated, through a process known as "gamut mapping," when displayed on certain output devices. See id., ¶ 13.
The pending action involves three patents: U.S. Patents Nos. 4,939,581 (the "'581" patent), 5,115,229 (the "'229" patent), and 5,345,315 (the "'315" patent). In each instance the plaintiff Hanoch Shalit is listed as the sole inventor. The '229 and '315 patents are each a continuation-in-part of the '581 patent. See U.S. Patents Nos. 4,939,581, 5,115,229, and 5,345,315.
The '581 patent, entitled "Method and System in Video Image Hard Copy Reproduction," was filed on November 23, 1988 and granted on July 3, 1990. According to the patent, an objective of the claimed invention is "to provide a more accurate black-white photographic image taken from the image on a video screen in which the photographic image more accurately maintains the relative and absolute (for luminance reproduction) tonal scale of gray tones." U .S. Patent No. 4,939,581, col. 3:61-66.
The '229 patent, entitled "Method and System in Video Image Reproduction," was filed on June 26, 1990 and granted on May 19, 1992. According to the patent, an objective of the claimed invention is "to provide a more accurate black-white video image on a second video monitor from the image on a first video screen in which the second image more accurately maintains the relative and absolute (for luminance reproduction) tonal scale of gray tones." U.S. Patent No. 5,115,229, col. 3:8-13.
The '315 patent, entitled "Method and System for Improved Tone and Color Reproduction of Electronic Image on Hard Copy Using a Closed Loop Control," was filed on March 20, 1992 and granted on September 6, 1994. According to the patent, an objective of the claimed invention is "to provide a more accurate black-white and color hard copy taken from the image on an original video monitor screen in which the hard copy reproduced image more accurately maintains the relative and absolute tonal scale of gray tones ... regardless of the distortions or inaccuracy of that original screen image as compared to an ideal image or the object from which the image is taken." Patent No. 5,345,315, col. 3:50-58.
Claim 13 of the '315 patent, the only claim pressed in the briefs and at argument, is typical of the patent claims allegedly infringed by the defendant.1 See Plaintiffs' Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment, at 11. Claim 13 of the '315 patent claims a "method of producing a series of color hard copy images which are accurate reproductions of the colors of video images on a video monitor screen without affecting the video monitor screen images." Id., col. 17:58-61. Claim 13 of the '315 patent includes the steps of:
forming a test video image on the screen of the video monitor, measuring the colors of the test image on the monitor screen using an electronic meter to provide a set of monitor screen color values, and entering the set of monitor screen values into a computer;
forming a test image on the hard copy using a hard copy printing system, said printing system including electronic means to vary the control signals to control the color intensity printed by said printing system on a dot-by-dot basis, the hard copy test image having predetermined colored areas including defined areas differing color intensities; [and,]
printing said hard copy test image to produce a color printed image of said hard copy test image using the same batch of hard copy color reproduction materials as will be thereafter used by the printing system to print the images from the video monitor; sensing the color differences on the hard copy test image using a photoelectric densitometer and entering the sensed color differences into the computer; comparing said entered hard copy color difference values with the set of monitor color values stored in computer memory; using the computer to calculate and generate a set of corrections to said control signals for each color value for each dot printed by said printing system based on the said comparison, and altering the colors printed by said printing system according to said set of computer produced corrections using the electronic means of said printing system.
Id., cols. 17:63-18:25.
Under the heading "Summary of the Invention," the '315 patent provides further description of the claimed invention. According to this description, after the hard copy test pattern is printed, the hard copy test pattern is measured by a densitometer. The densitometer's output is then
entered into the computer. The computer, using its look-up table memory, will determine the required compensation on a dot-by-dot basis.... The computer memory includes a `standard' set of density values corresponding to the luminance values for each tone. That `standard' set is obtained by measuring the luminances on the original monitor screen using a spot photometer, of a tonal test pattern.... Those standard values are compared to the actual values, from the densitometer, to provide the required compensation.
Id., cols. 4:55-5:15. The comparison used to generate the "required compensation" is, according to the specifications, a subtractive function. See id., cols. 9/10:40-64 ( that corrected pixel value is "obtained from" "calc. col. 7 minus 5"). The specifications also disclose that when the claimed invention is used to correct a color (as opposed to black-and-white) image, the three primary color components —...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Tm Patents v. International Business Machines, 97 CIV. 1529(CM) (MDF).
...of the court." RAD Data Communications, Inc. v. Patton Elecs. Co., 882 F.Supp. 351, 352 (S.D.N.Y.1995); Imatec, Ltd. v. Apple Computer, Inc., 81 F.Supp.2d 471 (S.D.N.Y.2000); see also GAIA Techs., Inc. v. Reconversion Techs., Inc., 93 F.3d 774, 780 (Fed.Cir.1996) (calling the standing quest......
-
Picture Patents Llc v. Aeropostale Inc.
...at 7.) “In general ... only the owner of a patent has standing to sue for infringement of the patent.” Imatec, Ltd. v. Apple Computer, Inc., 81 F.Supp.2d 471, 481 (S.D.N.Y.2000); see also Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992) (“The party i......
-
Aerotel, Ltd. v. Idt Corp.
...Inc., 939 F.2d 1568, 1573 (Fed.Cir. 1991); TM Patents, L.P., 121 F.Supp.2d at 349, 358 (S.D.N.Y.2000); Imatec, Ltd. v. Apple Computer, Inc., 81 F.Supp.2d 471, 481 (S.D.N.Y.2000). In such a case, the contract or statute "divests the inventorassignor of ownership of the invention and automati......
-
Alzheimer's Inst. of Am., Inc. v. Radiopharmaceuticals
...(Fed.Cir.1991); Picture Patents, LLC v. Aeropostale, Inc., 788 F.Supp.2d 127, 131, 136–37 (S.D.N.Y.2011); Imatec, Ltd. v. Apple Computer, Inc., 81 F.Supp.2d 471, 481 (S.D.N.Y.2000). Avid and Penn did not assert any rights USF may have. They challenged AIA's standing to bring an action for i......