Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Big Fish Games, Inc.

• Decision Date: 19 June 2018
• Docket Number: CASE NO. C17-1183 RAJ
• Citation: 320 F.Supp.3d 1178
• Parties: UNILOC USA, INC. and Uniloc Luxembourg, S.A., Plaintiffs, v. BIG FISH GAMES, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Washington

320 F.Supp.3d 1178

UNILOC USA, INC. and Uniloc Luxembourg, S.A., Plaintiffs,

v.BIG FISH GAMES, INC., Defendant.

CASE NO. C17-1183 RAJ

United States District Court, W.D. Washington, at Seattle.

Signed June 19, 2018

James Foster, Prince Lobel Tye LLP, Boston, MA, Al Van Kampen, Van Kampen & Crowe, PLLC, Seattle, WA, Plaintiffs.

Douglas F. Stewart, Jared D. Schuettenhelm, Patrick J. Connolly, Bracewell LLP, Seattle, WA, David J. Ball, Pro Hac Vice, Bracewell LLP, New York, NY, Timothy R. Geiger, Pro Hac Vice, Bracewell LLP, Houston, TX, for Defendant.

ORDER

The Honorable Richard A. Jones, United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter comes before the Court on Defendant Big Fish Games, Inc.'s ("Big Fish") Motion to Dismiss. Dkt. # 22. Plaintiffs, Uniloc USA, Inc. and Uniloc Luxembourg, S.A. ("Uniloc"), oppose the Motion. Dkt. # 52. Having considered the submissions of the parties, the relevant portions of the record, and the applicable law, the Court finds that oral argument is unnecessary. For the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS Defendant's Motion to Dismiss. Dkt. # 22.

II. BACKGROUND

Uniloc alleges that Defendant has infringed and is continuing to infringe one or more claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,110,228 ("the '228 Patent") and U.S. Patent No. 6,564,229 ("the '229 Patent"), by making, using, importing, offering for sale and/or selling the Big Fish Games portal, which allows remote users to install upgrades to Big Fish Games, and by instructing its customers to infringe on the patents through training videos, demonstrations, brochures, installation and/or user guides. Dkt. # 1 ¶¶ 16, 18, 34, 36.

Uniloc asserts two patents in this lawsuit: the '228 Patent which is entitled, "Method and Apparatus for Software Maintenance at Remote Nodes," and the '229 Patent, which is entitled "System and Method for Pausing and Resuming Move/Copy Operations." Dkt. # 1 Exs. A, B. Both patents involve processes within data processing systems. Id. The '228 Patent purports to improve on prior art by providing a common method of applying software fixes to remote locations across operating systems and program products in distributed data processing systems. Dkt. # 1 Ex. A. Pursuant to this method, a central software maintenance facility operates with a computer interface through which a customer at a remote location can request service and receive updated executable code back from the facility. Id. The customer interface provides a "front end" that covers different software platforms and allows a customer to specify a range of operations, including service research, requesting service, applying service, providing program fixes, and installing product or fixes at the remote location. The application of the service is done at the central facility. Id.

The '229 Patent purports to improve on prior art by providing a method and system for pausing move or copy operations in order to provide computing resources to other system operations within a data processing system. Id. By allowing a user to pause the move or copy operation, the information is retained so that the operation can be resumed at a later time. Id. This releases computing and network resources utilized by the operation while preserving the progress of the operation. Id.

III. LEGAL STANDARD

A. FRCP 12(b)(6)

Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) permits a court to dismiss a complaint for failure to state a claim. The rule requires the court to assume the truth of the complaint's factual allegations and credit all reasonable inferences arising from those allegations. Sanders v. Brown , 504 F.3d 903, 910 (9th Cir. 2007). A court "need not accept as true conclusory allegations that are contradicted by documents referred to in the complaint." Manzarek v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. , 519 F.3d 1025, 1031 (9th Cir. 2008). The plaintiff must point to factual allegations that "state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 568, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). If the plaintiff succeeds, the complaint avoids dismissal if there is "any set of facts consistent with the allegations in the complaint" that would entitle the plaintiff to relief. Id. at 563, 127 S.Ct. 1955 ; Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 679, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

A court typically cannot consider evidence beyond the four corners of the complaint, although it may rely on a document to which the complaint refers if the document is central to the party's claims and its authenticity is not in question. Marder v. Lopez , 450 F.3d 445, 448 (9th Cir. 2006). A court may also consider evidence subject to judicial notice. United States v. Ritchie , 342 F.3d 903, 908 (9th Cir. 2003).

IV. DISCUSSION

Big Fish argues that the Complaint fails to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) because the patents Uniloc asserts claim patent-ineligible concepts under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

A. Patent-Ineligibility

Courts may consider patent eligibility issues on the pleadings and prior to discovery or claim construction. While it is often necessary to resolve claim construction disputes prior to a § 101 analysis in order to gain a full understanding of the claimed subject matter, "claim construction is not an inviolable prerequisite to a validity determination under § 101." Bancorp Servs., L.L.C. v. Sun Life Assur. Co. of Canada (U.S.) , 687 F.3d 1266, 1273 (Fed. Cir. 2012). The "words of a claim are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning." Phillips v. AWH Corp. , 415 F.3d 1303, 1312–13 (Fed. Cir. 2005). Where, as here, the basic character of the claims can be understood on their face for the purposes of the § 101 analysis, patentability can be examined at the pleading stage. Bancorp , 687 F.3d at 1274 ; Content Extraction & Transmission LLC v. Wells Fargo Bank, Nat. Ass'n, 776 F.3d 1343, 1349 (Fed. Cir. 2014) ; see also Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Erie Indem. Co. , 711 Fed.Appx. 1012 (Fed. Cir. 2017).

Section 101 of the Patent Act provides that "[w]hoever invents or discovers a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title." 35 U.S.C. § 101. However, "[l]aws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable." Ass'n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. , 569 U.S. 576, 133 S.Ct. 2107, 2116, 186 L.Ed.2d 124 (2013).

The Supreme Court has established a "two-step analytical framework to identify patents that, in essence, claim nothing more than abstract ideas." Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l , ––– U.S. ––––, 134 S.Ct. 2347, 2355, 189 L.Ed.2d 296 (2014). The first step is to determine whether the claim is directed to a patent-ineligible concept, such as an abstract idea. Id. To distinguish claims that are directed to abstract ideas from those that merely involve abstract ideas, courts look to "the ‘focus’ of the claims" and "their ‘character as a whole.’ " Elec. Power Grp., LLC v. Alstom, S.A. , 830 F.3d 1350, 1353 (Fed. Cir. 2016). If the claim is directed to a patent-ineligible concept, the court examines the claim limitations to determine whether they furnish an "inventive concept" that transforms the abstract idea into a patent-eligible application of that idea. Alice , 134 S.Ct. at 2355. The second step of this framework is a "search for ... an element or combination of elements that is sufficient to ensure that the patent in practice amounts to significantly more than a patent upon the ineligible concept itself." Id.

B. Failure to State a Claim

a. The '229 Patent

1. Patent-Ineligible Concept

Where, as here, the claims at issue are directed toward computer-related technology, the first step in the Alice inquiry "asks whether the focus of the claims is on the specific asserted improvement in computer capabilities or, instead, on a process that qualifies as an ‘abstract idea’ for which computers are invoked merely as a tool." Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp. , 822 F.3d 1327, 1335 (Fed. Cir. 2016). In Enfish , the patents were specifically directed to a self-referential table for a computer database rather than simply focusing on the individual functions performed by that self-referential table, i.e. storing, organizing, and retrieving memory in a logical table. The Federal Circuit Court found that the claims at issue were directed to a "specific improvement to the way computers operate" and not "simply adding conventional computer components to well-known business practices." Id. at 1338.

The '229 Patent claims a "method and system of moving or copying data within a data processing system." Dkt. # 1 Ex. B. When the operation is suspended, "information regarding the copy operation is retained so that the operation can be resumed at a later time." Independent Claim 1 of the '229 patent claims:

A method for copying data from a source file to a target file on a computer system, said method comprising:

reading a first data portion from the source file;

writing the first data portion to the target file;

pausing the copying in response to a user requesting a pause operation from a user interface, wherein the computer system is available for other processing operations following the pausing;

reading a second data portion from the source file in response to the user requesting a resume operation; andwriting the second data portion to the target file.

Big Fish represents that Independent Claim 1 is representative of Independent Claim 10 and Independent Claim 16. Dkt. # 22 at 15. Dependent Claims 2-9, 11-15, and 16-19 impose further limitations on how the data is stored or organized, how the operation is paused, how the data is transmitted, and the type of computer system and computer program product that can execute the method steps. Dkt. # 1 Ex. B.

Uniloc argues that the asserted claims of the '229 Patent are not drawn to an abstract idea because they improve the functioning of a computer, citing to Alice to...