By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Richard G. Andrews in EON Corp. IP Holdings, LLC v. FLO TV Incorporated, et al., Civil Action No. 10-812-RGA (D.Del., March 4, 2014), the Court granted Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment Based on Invalidity after finding that eight terms of the patent-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 5,663,757 ("the '757 patent"), were computer-implemented means-plus function claims and those claim terms were indefinite for failing to disclose an algorithm to accomplish the function. See id. at 3-23.
In reaching its decision, the Court determined that a general purpose computer with off-the-shelf software in 1991 could not perform the claimed functions without special programming. See id. As a result, the Court found that the exception carved out by the Federal Circuit in In re Katz Interactive Call Processing Patent Litig., 639 F.3d 1303, 1316 (Fed. Cir. 2011) did not apply, the disclosure of an algorithm to accomplish the claimed functions was required, and the patentee could not rely on a general purpose computer to satisfy the structure requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 (now § 112(f)).
A copy of the Memorandum Opinion is attached.
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