Federal Circuit Affirms Finding of Indefiniteness in Dispute Over Mobile Phone and Camera Patents
Patent – Patently-O 2023-09-25
Summary:
by Dennis Crouch
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently affirmed a finding by Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright that certain claims in two patents owned by WSOU Investments LLC were invalid as indefinite under 35 U.S.C. §112. WSOU Invs., LLC v. Google LLC, Nos. 22-1066, -1067 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 25, 2023). Although the decision is designated nonprecedential, it includes a number of interesting lessons on the requirements for definiteness and disclosure of corresponding structure under 35 U.S.C. §112.
The Technology at Issue
The first patent at issue was U.S. Patent No. 7,304,563 (“the ‘563 patent”), entitled “Alarm clock.” This patent claimed an alarm clock feature for mobile phones where the alarm involved initiating a connection to another device over a network to cause that device to signal the alarm.
Claim 16 is is recited in means-plus-function form:
issuing means for issuing an alert when the current time matches the alert time by initiating a connection to another communication terminal over a network so as to cause that other terminal to locally signal the incidence of the connection incoming thereto
‘563 Patent, claim 16.