throbber

`
`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`
`______________
`
`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`
`______________
`
`AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY, AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL
`RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC., EXPEDIA, INC., HOTELS.COM LP,
`HOTELS.COM GP, LLC, HOTWIRE, INC., ORBITZ WORLDWIDE, INC.,
`PRICELINE.COM, INC., TRAVELOCITY.COM LP, and YAHOO! INC.
`Petitioner,
`
`v.
`
`METASEARCH SYSTEMS, LLC,
`Patent Owner
`______________
`
`Case CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924 B1
`______________
`
`PETITIONER’S REPLY TO
`PATENT OWNER’S RESPONSE TO PETITION
`
`
`

`

`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`
`TABLE OF CONTENTS
`
`Page
`INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1
`I.
`PATENT OWNER DEFENDS IMAGINED CLAIMS .................................. 1
`II.
`III. SECTION 101: ALICE CORP. SUPPORTS
`THE BOARD’S PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION ................................ 4
`IV. CLAIMS ARE UNPATENTABLE UNDER SECTION 103 ......................... 7
`A.
`Imagined Limitations Cannot Distinguish Prior Art ............................. 7
`B. Knowledge Broker Discloses A Metasearch Engine ............................ 8
`C. Knowledge Broker And Mamma.com
`Are Similar In Technology And Application ......................................11
`Combining Advertising With Knowledge Broker Was Natural .........12
`D.
`THE BOARD NEED NOT CONSTRUE “METASEARCHING” ..............14
`V.
`VI. DR. ETZIONI’S TESTIMONY DOES NOT HELP THESE CLAIMS .......14
`VII. CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................15
`
`i
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`

`

`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
`
`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`
`Page
`
`Cases
`Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l,
`134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014)............................................................................... 4, 5, 6, 7
`Ass’n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.,
`133 S. Ct. 2107 (2013)............................................................................................ 7
`buySAFE, Inc. v. Google, Inc.,
`No. 2013-1575, 2014 WL 4337771 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 3, 2014)................................ 7
`CyberSource Corp. v. Retail Decisions, Inc.,
`654 F.3d 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2011) .............................................................................. 7
`Statutes
`35 U.S.C. § 101 ......................................................................................................1, 4
`35 U.S.C. § 103 ......................................................................................................1, 7
`
`
`
`ii
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`

`

`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`
`I.
`
`INTRODUCTION
`Patent Owner’s Response does not overcome the prima facie case for
`
`invalidity established by Petitioner. Patent Owner’s Response fails to address the
`
`claims as written, mischaracterizes the prior art, and advances irrelevant
`
`arguments. Accordingly, the Board should find the challenged claims unpatentable
`
`under 35 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 103.
`
`II.
`
`PATENT OWNER DEFENDS IMAGINED CLAIMS
`Patent Owner imagines patent claims with multiple limitations not actually
`
`required by the challenged claims. Patent Owner does not seek a BRI requiring
`
`these supposed limitations, or try to justify such a BRI. Instead, it merely presents
`
`patentability arguments that assume such limitations are in the claims—and dreams
`
`up advantages supposedly attributable to these imagined claim limitations. That
`
`these imagined limitations are nowhere in the claims was confirmed in the cross
`
`examination of Dr. Carbonell, Patent Owner’s expert. Time and again, Dr.
`
`Carbonell readily conceded that a feature Patent Owner assumes is in the claim, is
`
`not required by the claim. Two examples illustrate. First, no challenged claim
`
`requires purchasing or e-commerce, but Patent Owner’s Response (hereinafter
`
`“PO’s Response” or “POR”) defends the claims by referring to purchasing more
`
`than 30 times and e-commerce more than 40 times. Second, no claim requires
`
`searching heterogeneous information sources, but PO’s Response more than 25
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`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`times refers to this as a supposedly key element of the allegedly claimed invention.
`
`Dr. Carbonell admitted that claim 2 did not require these two features or any
`
`of the following features (and his conclusions apply equally to claims 6 and 8)—
`
`each of which PO’s Response discusses as if required by the claims:
`
`Specific Hardware: Contrary to PO’s Response (pp. 1 & 51), the claims do
`
`not require the metasearch engine to be “specific hardware components” or a
`
`“computer component.” On the contrary, the metasearch engine is information that
`
`executes on a hardware device, and a computer does not execute on a hardware
`
`device. (Ex. 1041 at 66:16-68:8.) The specification further explains the “hardware”
`
`is not anything “specific,” and has no limits beyond whatever is “suitable.” (E.g.,
`
`Ex. 2001 at 97:33-53; 98:7-27.)
`
`Specific Host: Contrary to PO’s Response (pp. 11-13, 39, 43, 52 & 60), the
`
`claims do not require any of the plural hosts to be a Web site, or a search engine, or
`
`an e-commerce site, or a database, or “populated by a spidering process.” (Ex.
`
`1041 at 81:13-83:25.) Rather, the claims require only that a host “provide access to
`
`information to be searched.”
`
`Specific Information: Contrary to PO’s Response (pp. 10-14, 37, 42, 44, 49,
`
`51-53 & 62), the claims do not require that the “information” accessible at the
`
`hosts be “structured,” “semistructured,” unstructured, or “heterogeneous” (Ex.
`
`1041 at 83:20-84:18; 86:1-16), or “dynamic,” “current, up-to-date, and complete,”
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`Patent 8,326,924
`or relate to “items in rapidly changing markets,” or contain “current product
`
`availability and pricing information” (id. at 84:19-85:25). All the claims require is
`
`that it is “information to be searched.”
`
`Reformatting: Contrary to PO’s Response (pp. 45-49), the claims do not
`
`require requests, queries or results to have any particular format (e.g., structured,
`
`semistructured, or unstructured) or that they be reformatted into an “entirely
`
`different syntax,” or otherwise, in the claimed method. (Ex. 1041 at 74:1-77:15;
`
`88:24-89:14; 90:10-91:9.)
`
`Purchasing: Contrary to PO’s Response (pp. 10-13, 16, 37-39, 42-44, 49, 55-
`
`56, 59 & 63), the claims do not require a purchase, e-commerce, or the
`
`“capabilities of an e-commerce site.” (See Ex. 1042 ¶ 36.) As Dr. Carbonell
`
`conceded, it is possible to order a free item; the “item” could, for example, be a
`
`free travel brochure. (Ex. 1041 at 87:7-23.)
`
`In sum, virtually nothing PO’s Response says or assumes about the
`
`challenged claims is correct. They are not, for instance, “directed towards a
`
`comprehensive process for accessing information from numerous heterogeneous
`
`information sources with the most current pricing information in order to facilitate
`
`the purchase of an item . . . .” (POR 37-38.) Nor do they “claim a novel
`
`technological solution of metasearching heterogeneous information sources (e.g.,
`
`unstructured, semistructured, and structured data) across webpages and e-
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`Patent 8,326,924
`commerce sites to facilitate the purchase of an item . . . .” (Id. at 39.)
`
`III. SECTION 101: ALICE CORP. SUPPORTS THE
`BOARD’S PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION
`The Board should declare these claims unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101
`
`because (1) Alice Corp. reaffirmed the legal analysis the Board applied in its initial
`
`determination and (2) Patent Owner has failed to address the actual claims being
`
`challenged or otherwise rebut the prima facie showing of unpatentability.
`
`Claims 2, 6 and 8 are directed to the abstract idea of “marketing an item on a
`
`metasearch Web site with keyword ads and some way to order the item.” (Corr’d
`
`Pet. (Paper 20) 12-13, 23-25 & 43-45.) Patent Owner acknowledges Petitioner’s
`
`following position but has no answer for it: “because the remaining limitations are
`
`directed to metasearching, they cannot meaningfully limit an abstract idea in the
`
`field of metasearching.” (POR 41.) As the Board concluded in its Institution
`
`Decision, the scope of these claims is limited only by conventional, general
`
`purpose computer functions (Paper 29 at 17-18), which cannot render the abstract
`
`idea patent eligible. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347, 2352
`
`(2014) (“merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that
`
`abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention”).
`
`Computer elements are “conventional” (or generic) if the function performed
`
`is a basic function of the computer, such as electronic recordkeeping, obtaining
`
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`Patent 8,326,924
`data, adjusting account balances, and issuing automated instructions, or, if “the
`
`process could be ‘carried out in existing computers long in use.’” Id. at 2357. Here,
`
`although the claims do not require a computer, the claim-recited steps use
`
`functions basic to conventional computers in 1999. (Cf. Ex. 1041 at 93:13-94:16
`
`(Dr. Carbonell testified a conventional Unix server in 1998 could have performed
`
`the method of claim 2).) All of these claim-recited steps were just as conventional
`
`as those “obtaining data,” etc. conventional-computer functions identified in Alice
`
`Corp.: receiving and sending requests for information, processing such requests,
`
`and receiving and sending responses to such requests. Considering the steps “as an
`
`ordered combination” here adds nothing to this analysis.
`
`Patent Owner argues that a computer is required because a travel agent
`
`working manually could not work fast enough to purchase at the current price an
`
`item with a rapidly changing price. (POR 51-52.) There are at least two problems
`
`with this argument. First, it imagines a fictional claim. Second, it would be
`
`irrelevant even if true. The claims still would amount to nothing more than an
`
`instruction on how to apply an abstract idea “using some unspecified, generic
`
`computer.” Alice Corp., 134 S. Ct. at 2360. In Alice Corp., “the claimed method
`
`require[d] the use of a computer,” id. at 2359, but only for conventional computer
`
`functions.
`
`Patent Owner’s arguments that the claims are patent eligible rely on
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`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`imaginary claim limitations, made-up solutions, and disclosures in the patent
`
`written description rather than the claims themselves. Patent Owner’s declaration
`
`that the claims provide a “technical” or “technological solution” is exemplary,
`
`(POR 43-47), and problematic for three reasons. First, PO’s Response conflates the
`
`claims with the specification, and bases its “technical solution” argument on
`
`(results-only) embodiments in the specification. Second, there is no plausible
`
`argument that these claims recite an improvement in the functioning of a computer.
`
`Cf. Alice Corp., 134 S. Ct. at 2359 (“The method claims do not, for example,
`
`purport to improve the functioning of the computer itself. Nor do they effect an
`
`improvement in any other technology or technical field.” (citations omitted)).
`
`Third, the claimed methods do not improve an existing technological process. Cf.
`
`id. As explained by Mr. Liao, this patent is replete with science fiction but lacking
`
`in even a single concrete embodiment. (Ex. 1009 ¶¶ 9-16 (patent provides no
`
`working examples of any element of the alleged invention and repeatedly describes
`
`these elements as having “unlimited” capabilities to be accomplished by any
`
`“suitable means”).)
`
`Similarly flawed is Patent Owner’s argument that the claims require
`
`“transformative steps,” specifically “transforming” “data into an entirely different
`
`syntax in order to enable communication of the search requests, results, or order.”
`
`(POR 47.) The claims do not require any change into an “entirely different syntax.”
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`Patent 8,326,924
`(Ex. 1041 at 77:6-15; 90:10-91:9.) Even if they did, “mere manipulation or
`
`reorganization of data . . . does not satisfy the transformation prong.” CyberSource
`
`Corp. v. Retail Decisions, Inc., 654 F.3d 1366, 1375 (Fed. Cir. 2011). The claims
`
`require no transformation of a particular article. Rather, these claims deal with
`
`abstract data, as was true in Benson, Bilski and Alice. Further, PO’s Response does
`
`not even try to apply the analysis set forth by the en banc Bilski court when
`
`explaining the ruling in In re Abele, despite the Board’s reliance on that precedent
`
`in its Institution Decision. (Paper 29 at 15.) The label “transformative steps” (POR
`
`47-49) is not a magic wand turning data into a particular physical article.
`
`Finally, Patent Owner suggests that the abstract idea (which it
`
`mischaracterizes as requiring e-commerce) itself is novel and useful. (POR 41-43.)
`
`Even were that so, it is immaterial. Patents cannot be used to preempt abstract
`
`ideas, whether those ideas are new or old, or useful or useless. Cf. buySAFE, Inc.
`
`v. Google, Inc., No. 2013-1575, 2014 WL 4337771, at *2 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 3, 2014)
`
`(abstract ideas are unpatentable no matter how “‘[g]roundbreaking, innovative, or
`
`even brilliant’” (quoting Ass’n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.,
`
`133 S. Ct. 2107, 2117 (2013))).
`
`IV. CLAIMS ARE UNPATENTABLE UNDER SECTION 103
`Imagined Limitations Cannot Distinguish Prior Art
`A.
`Step (d): Patent Owner assumes an unduly narrow interpretation of step (d)
`
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`Patent 8,326,924
`and “results list.” Contrary to Patent Owner’s assumption (POR 58), nothing in
`
`these claims requires combining structured and unstructured data into the same
`
`single list. On the contrary, Dr. Carbonell admitted that the returned results need
`
`not be structured. (Ex. 1041 at 90:4-15.) Both Mamma.com and Knowledge Broker
`
`disclose this element as construed by the Board. (Ex. 1042 ¶¶ 43-48.)
`
`Steps (g) and (h): Patent Owner assumes an unduly narrow interpretation of
`
`these steps. Contrary to Patent Owner’s assumption (POR 10-13, 16, 37-39, 42-44,
`
`49, 55-56, 59 & 63), and notwithstanding Patent Owner’s 40 plus references to “e-
`
`commerce” and 30 plus references to “purchase” or “purchasing,” nothing in these
`
`claims requires that the order be a purchase. The patent describes purchase as
`
`merely one example of an order. (E.g., Ex. 2001 at 2:67-3:4; 7:29-33; 45:51-54;
`
`62:39-46.) And, Dr. Carbonell admitted that claim 2 allows for the ordered item to
`
`be free. (Ex. 1041 at 87:7-23.) Both Mamma.com and Knowledge Broker disclose
`
`these elements, under their BRI. (Ex. 1042 ¶¶ 32-42.) Patent Owner suggests that
`
`the Mamma.com site does not process the orders it receives. That is not so. It must
`
`process the order because it keeps track of each click on the “download now”
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`button and then it redirects the request to the download page of the software
`
`provider. (Id. ¶¶ 33-36.)
`
`B. Knowledge Broker Discloses A Metasearch Engine
`Patent Owner’s contention that Knowledge Broker does not send searches to
`
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`Patent 8,326,924
`external data sources in response to user search queries, and thus is not a
`
`metasearch engine (POR 60-61), is soundly refuted by multiple express statements
`
`in the references themselves (Ex. 1042 ¶¶ 6-31), and by the cross-examination
`
`testimony of its expert, Dr. Carbonell.
`
`As Mr. Liao explains, each of Exhibits 1006 and 1007 expressly describes
`
`querying external data archives in response to receiving a search query from a user.
`
`(Ex. 1042 ¶¶ 6-17.) Knowledge Broker performs “metasearching” under both the
`
`Board’s tentative BRI and also under Patent Owner’s proposed construction. (Id.
`
`¶¶ 16-17.) In cross-examining Dr. Carbonell, Petitioner’s counsel read Patent
`
`Owner’s proposed construction of “metasearch” (Ex. 1041 at 52:18-25; 56:7-11)—
`
`without revealing that it was Patent Owner’s construction—and asked whether this
`
`was disclosed in passages from Knowledge Broker Exhibits 1006 and 1007. Each
`
`time Dr. Carbonell testified that it was, once with qualifications that do not conflict
`
`with Patent Owner’s proposed construction. (Id. at 52:18-53:14; 56:7-15.)
`
`Specifically, Dr. Carbonell admitted on cross-examination that Figure 1 of
`
`Exhibit 1006 depicts plural external hosts, labeled as “external archives,” that are
`
`accessed by Knowledge Broker via HTTP and searched to answer the request from
`
`the user. (Id. at 18:17-19:10; 20:1-23; 44:14-47:14.) Further, Exhibit 1007 (p. 12)
`
`states:
`
`This wrapper receives the description of the constraints corresponding
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`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`to the query, translates them into the query-string required by the
`search script, verifies that the indicated fields are accepted by the
`server and provides default values for required fields not specified by
`the user. It then queries the server and receives the results in html
`format. Finally it parses the results and translates them into the
`constraint format accepted by the CBKB system.
`
`Dr. Carbonell agreed that this passage discloses sending search queries to
`
`plural remote hosts and returning the results to the user (Ex. 1041 at 58:15-59:15;
`
`see also id. at 41:20-43:14)—which is Patent Owner’s proposed construction of
`
`“metasearch” (POR 25). Earlier, Dr. Carbonell defined a “query string” as what is
`
`sent “from a metasearch engine into a search engine.” (Ex. 1041 at 11:18-12:3.)
`
`(The above-quoted passage uses that term.) He also agreed that Figure 3 of Exhibit
`
`1007 (p. 10) discloses sending at least one search query to plural hosts and
`
`returning the results received from each host. (Ex. 1041 at 53:20-56:15.) Again,
`
`that is Patent Owner’s proposed construction of “metasearch.” (POR 25.)
`
`The apparent basis for Patent Owner’s contention that Knowledge Broker
`
`was not a metasearch engine is Dr. Carbonell’s recollection of discussions he had
`
`more than 15 years ago about Knowledge Broker generating and searching its own
`
`internal index of the external data repositories. But he admitted that these
`
`references “did not discuss” these features. (Ex. 1041 at 130:7-131:7.) On the
`
`contrary, as explained above, Exhibits 1006 or 1007 expressly refute his
`
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`recollection. (Ex. 1042 ¶¶ 24-28.)
`
`C. Knowledge Broker And Mamma.com
`Are Similar In Technology And Application
`
`Patent Owner attacks the combination of references proposed by Petitioner
`
`
`
`by arguing “technical challenges” would teach away from “combining general-
`
`purpose metasearch engines with special-purpose e-commerce sites searching
`
`structured data.” (POR 59.) Patent Owner’s arguments again are based on
`
`imagined claims. Neither the claims nor the proposed combination require e-
`
`commerce or searching of any particular type of data. (For example, as Dr.
`
`Carbonell conceded, the method’s travel related item might be a free travel
`
`brochure. (Ex. 1041 at 87:7-23.).) Any “technical challenges” that might attach to
`
`Patent Owner’s imagined combination are consequently irrelevant. Regardless,
`
`Mamma.com and Knowledge Broker are not the “disparate technologies” Patent
`
`Owner contends. (POR 62.) To the contrary, Mamma.com and Knowledge
`
`Broker’s common features suggest their combinability. (Ex. 1042 ¶ 50.)
`
`First, Knowledge Broker—as explained in detail above—and Mamma.com
`
`both performed metasearching and were metasearch engines. Second, both
`
`Knowledge Broker and Mamma.com received and processed orders. (Ex. 1042 ¶¶
`
`32-42.) Third, both Knowledge Broker and Mamma.com searched
`
`“heterogeneous” sources—although not required by the claims. As Patent Owner
`
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`points out, Mamma.com was not only a “general metasearch engine” (POR 61),
`
`but also performed searches of structured databases (id. at 6). Likewise, Exhibits
`
`1006 and 1007 disclose Knowledge Broker’s ability to meta-search a wide variety
`
`of heterogeneous data repositories including Web search engines, aka Web
`
`crawlers. (Ex. 1007 at 11 (Fig. 4) (Knowledge Broker’s Web search interface
`
`included an option “Search also Webcrawlers.”).) A “Web crawler” is “software
`
`that seeks out information from multiple sources, usually multiple hosts on the web
`
`by following links, hyperlinks usually, and collects that information in one central
`
`repository.” (Ex. 1041 at 6:21-7:1.) “Some of the web crawlers in existence [in
`
`1999 include] Lycos, Excite, AltaVista and perhaps Infoseek.” (Id. at 7:18-21; see
`
`also Ex. 1006 at 2 (reciting “Lycos, Alta Vista, Yahoo and other retrieval
`
`engines”).) Thus, Knowledge Broker’s reach was not limited to repositories of
`
`physics articles, but also accessed the same sources searched by general-purpose
`
`metasearch engines such as Mamma.com.
`
`Mamma.com and Knowledge Broker are not the “vastly different
`
`technologies” Patent Owner contends. (POR 59; cf. Ex. 1042 ¶ 50.)
`
`D. Combining Advertising With Knowledge Broker Was Natural
`The lead reference, Knowledge Broker, discloses each step of each
`
`challenged claim except for the advertising step. It would have been obvious to a
`
`skilled artisan in 1999-2000 to add that step to Knowledge Broker.
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`First, as Dr. Carbonell testified (Ex. 1041 at 91:11-93:11), the claims do not
`
`specify an advertisement source. So, the advertisement could be provided by one
`
`of the plural hosts separately from the search results, such as a keyword-triggered
`
`advertisement provided by a search engine. As noted, Knowledge Broker expressly
`
`described searching hosts that were Web crawlers and other search engines. It was
`
`common for search engines to return keyword-triggered advertisements in addition
`
`to their search results. (Ex. 1008 ¶¶ 20, 25 & 33.) As Mamma.com shows, there
`
`would be no technical obstacle to returning those advertisements to the user with
`
`the search results.
`
`Second, contrary to Patent Owner’s charge that Knowledge Broker is limited
`
`to libraries and physics papers (POR 21-23 & 57), Exhibits 1006 and 1007 disclose
`
`a framework with broad relevance to a large variety of domains, and with both
`
`commercial and non-commercial applications. Exhibit 1006 teaches that the
`
`Knowledge Broker architecture can be exploited in “a large variety and number of
`
`multiagent applications for knowledge management on the Web” including
`
`“bargain finding [and] dynamic assemblage of virtual catalogs.” (Ex. 1006 at 2
`
`(3rd full para.).) The terms “bargain finding” and “virtual catalog” refer to
`
`comparison shopping engines. (Ex. 1041 at 8:6-17; Ex. 1042 ¶ 49.) Also, Dr.
`
`Carbonell testified that comparison shopping sites sometimes included banner ads.
`
`(Ex. 1041 at 9:6-15; see also Ex. 1042 ¶ 49.) A banner ad at least sometimes relates
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`to an item associated with the search request.
`
`Third, Knowledge Broker expressly discloses the need for a commercial
`
`model. (Ex. 1007 at 12-13.) That model need not be either transactions without
`
`advertising or advertising without transactions. Instead, Patent Owner’s expert Dr.
`
`Carbonell notes that “hybrid” revenue models were explored in this time period.
`
`(Ex. 2006 ¶ 29; see also POR 64.) He noted that in 1999-2000, “[m]etasearch
`
`relied on advertisement” (Ex. 2006 ¶ 29), and Knowledge Broker shows that a
`
`metasearch service also can sell items. Indeed, advertising at the point of sale is an
`
`ancient practice.
`
`V. THE BOARD NEED NOT CONSTRUE “METASEARCHING”
`
`The Board need not resolve the parties’ dispute over the meaning of
`
`“metasearching” because neither party relies on any difference between their
`
`competing constructions. Patent Owner seeks a broader construction of the term
`
`“metasearch”: “sending at least one search query to plural hosts, and returning the
`
`results received from each host.” (POR 25.) But, Patent Owner does not rely on
`
`that broader construction to distinguish Knowledge Broker or for any other reason.
`
`VI. DR. ETZIONI’S TESTIMONY DOES NOT HELP THESE CLAIMS
`Dr. Etzioni was not asked to read these claims or this patent. Instead, he
`
`opined on background information concerning this field. Therefore, it is not
`
`accurate to say, as Patent Owner says, “Dr. Etzioni, who testified that the claimed
`
`PETITIONER’S REPLY TO
`PATENT OWNER’S RESPONSE TO PETITION
`
` Page 14
`
`

`

`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`invention reflected in Figure 9 of the ’924 Patent . . . .” (POR 41-42.) Dr. Etzioni
`
`did not read any text explaining that figure and did not compare that figure to any
`
`patent claim. Nor did Dr. Etzioni testify that “the e-commerce and metasearch
`
`aspects of the ’924 invention were different.” (POR 42).
`
`Patent Owner cites Dr. Etzioni’s testimony that designing more than a
`
`“rudimentary” metasearch engine in the late 1990s “was not a trivial task.” (POR
`
`7, 44, 53 & 62.) That’s true but does not help Patent Owner. These claims do not
`
`require more than a rudimentary metasearch engine. For example, they encompass
`
`within their scope a slow search of only two homogeneous Web sites in response
`
`to a single request from a single client.
`
`VII. CONCLUSION
`For the reasons in the Petition and above, claims 2, 6 and 8 of the ’924
`
`patent should be found to be unpatentable.
`
`Dated: September 11, 2014
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`KLARQUIST SPARKMAN, LLP
`
`
`By /John D. Vandenberg/
` John D. Vandenberg
` Registration No. 31,312
` Kristen L. Reichenbach, Ph.D.
` Registration No. 61,162
`
`
`
`One World Trade Center
`121 S.W. Salmon Street,
`Suite 1600
`Portland, Oregon 97204
`Telephone: (503) 595-5300
`Facsimile: (503) 595-5301
`
`
`PETITIONER’S REPLY TO
`PATENT OWNER’S RESPONSE TO PETITION
`
` Page 15
`
`

`

`CBM2014-00001
`Patent 8,326,924
`
`Certificate of Service
`
`The undersigned certifies that on September 11, 2014 a true and correct copy
`
`of PETITIONER’S REPLY TO PATENT OWNER’S RESPONSE TO PETITION
`
`was served along with associated Exhibits via electronic mail, per agreement of the
`
`parties, on the attorneys of record for the Patent Owner in this proceeding to the
`
`following:
`
`Cyrus A. Morton
`CAMorton@rkmc.com
`Ryan M. Schultz
`RMSchultz@rkmc.com
`Bryan J. Mechell
`BJMechell@rkmc.com
`Richard Martinez (Admitted Pro Hac Vice)
`RMMartinez@rkmc.com
`mmtacheny@rkmc.com
`ROBINS, KAPLAN, MILLER & CIRESI LLP
`2800 LaSalle Plaza
`800 LaSalle Avenue
`Minneapolis, MN 55402
`
`Counsel for Patent Owner
`
`
`
`One World Trade Center
`121 S.W. Salmon Street,
`Suite 1600
`Portland, Oregon 97204
`Telephone: (503) 595-5300
`Facsimile: (503) 595-5301
`
`
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`KLARQUIST SPARKMAN, LLP
`
`
`By /Kristen L. Reichenbach/
` Kristen L. Reichenbach, Ph.D.
` Registration No. 61,162
`
`
`
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`
`
`
`Page 1
`
`

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