throbber
U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
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`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`Case No. IPR2015-0175 1
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`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
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`RPX CORPORATION
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`Petitioner
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`V.
`
`APPLICATIONS IN INTERNET TIME LLC,
`Patent Owner
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`US Patent No. 7,356,482
`Issue Date: April 8, 2008
`Title: Integrated Change Management Unit
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`Inter Parte Review No. 2015-01751
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`PATENT OWNER’S REDACTED PRELIMINARY RESPONSE TO THE
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`PETITION
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`Table of Contents
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`C.
`D.
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`Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
`I.
`II. The petition must be denied for failure to name Salesforce, a time-
`barred real party in interest. ............................................................................. 3
`A.
`The flexible approach to RPI analysis .................................................. 3
`B.
`RPX is in the business of acting as a proxy for accused
`infringers like Salesforce ....................................................................... 7
`Salesforce has a real and critical interest here ...................................... 8
`RPX has a history of acting as a proxy, and adopted a “willful
`blindness” strategy to justify ignoring its RPI obligations ................... 9
` ................................................ 12
`E.
`RPX is Salesforce’s proxy, just like it was for Apple and others ....... 14
`F.
`III. Claim construction .......................................................................................... 22
`A.
`Level of skill of one of ordinary skill in the art .................................. 22
`B.
`“Application” or “application program” ............................................. 23
`C.
`“change management layer” element .................................................. 25
`D.
`“automatically detecting” step ............................................................ 28
`E.
`“intelligent agent” element .................................................................. 28
`IV. The petition fails to show that any claim is likely invalid ............................. 29
`A.
`Popp does not anticipate apparatus claims 1, 7-13, 18-20, 41,
`47-52 and 57-59 because it does not disclose a “change
`management layer” .............................................................................. 30
`Popp does not anticipate method claims 21, 27-33 or 38-40
`because it does not disclose “automatically detecting changes” ........ 31
`C. Kovacevic does not anticipate apparatus claims 1, 7-13, 18-20,
`41, 47-52 and 57-59 because it does not disclose a “change
`management layer” .............................................................................. 32
`
`B.
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`E.
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`F.
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`D. Kovacevic does not anticipate method claims 21, 27-33 or 38-
`40 because it does not disclose a “automatically detecting
`changes” .............................................................................................. 34
`Balderrama does not render obvious apparatus claims 1, 7-13,
`18-20, 41, 47-52 and 57-59 because it does not disclose a
`“change management layer” ................................................................ 34
`Balderrama does not anticipate claims method 21, 27-33 or 38-
`40 because it does not disclose a “automatically detecting
`changes” .............................................................................................. 36
`V. RPX has abused the IPR process and should be sanctioned .......................... 37
`VI. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 38
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`(cid:3)
`I.
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`Introduction
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`Patent owner respectfully requests that the Board deny the petition for
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`failure to name a real party in interest, and, in the alternative, for failure to show
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`that any claim is likely invalid. The claims are not anticipated or rendered obvious
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`by petitioner’s references. Further reflective of RPX’s abusive behavior, the
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`asserted grounds for patentability mirror what arose in original examination. The
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`applicants’ appeal brief in the ‘482 prosecution history clearly explains why the
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`claims are patentable over disclosures such as those cited in the petition. The
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`petition entirely ignores this, despite the clearly relevance of this prosecution
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`history to claim interpretation here.
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`The petition for inter parte review of U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482 (the ‘482
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`patent) fails because, yet again, petitioner RPX Corp. (RPX) comes before the
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`Board as an agent, not a principal. RPX has no interest in the ‘482 patent or the
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`outcome of this proceeding. Salesforce.com, Inc. (Salesforce) is the only party that
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`has ever been accused of infringing the ‘482 patent, and apparently the only party
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`with an interest in this proceeding.
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`to the highest level – these two publicly traded companies even have overlapping
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` Privity of RPX and Salesforce goes
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`1
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`boards. Because RPX failed to name the time-barred real party in interest (RPI),
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`the petition should be denied under 35 U.S.C. §§ 312(a) and 315(b).
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`Regardless of the RPI defect, the petition also fails to demonstrate that any
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`claim is likely unpatentable. The petitioner challenges claims 1, 7-21, 27-41 and
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`47-59 for anticipation and obviousness. Yet, in each of the four asserted grounds,
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`at least one claim element is not found in petitioner’s references – a “change
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`management layer.” Petitioner asserts that the internal user input controls and data
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`management controls of the references disclose a “change management layer.”
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`Yet, under a proper definition in view of the specification and prosecution history,
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`it is clear that this element detects changes to metadata about the application
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`program or other changes external to the application program, not changes internal
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`to an application program. Lacking this element of all of the claims, petitioner’s
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`arguments for unpatentability necessarily fail.
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`RPX has engaged in a pattern of abuse of the IPR process by callously
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`avoiding naming its clients as RPIs. While dismissal of the petition in this case is
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`proper, the PTAB should do more. RPX has a demonstrated record of abusing the
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`system. Patent owner therefore urges that the Board sanction RPX for this abuse.
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`II.
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`The petition must be denied for failure to name Salesforce, a time-
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`barred real party in interest.1
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`A.
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`The flexible approach to RPI analysis
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`The Board acting in this case explained the law exceptionally well in its
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`order granting patent owner additional discovery:
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`As stated in the Trial Practice Guide, proper RPI identification
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`is necessary “to assure proper application of the statutory estoppel
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`provisions,” in order “to protect patent owners from harassment via
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`1 This section is identical to the corresponding section in patent owner’s
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`preliminary response in Case No. 2015-01750, except for corrections of an error in
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`the spelling of Sanford Robertson’s name.
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`successive petitions by the same or related parties,” and “to prevent
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`parties from having a ‘second bite at the apple.’” Id. at 48,759.
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`Further, 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) specifically prevents inter partes review if
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`a “petition requesting the proceeding is filed more than 1 year after
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`the date on which the petitioner, real party in interest, or privy of the
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`petitioner is served with a complaint alleging infringement of the
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`patent.” RPX v AIT, Paper 11, pp. 4-5.
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`The legislative history indicates that 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) was intended to set
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`a “deadline for allowing an accused infringer to seek inter partes review after he
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`has been sued for infringement.” 157 Cong. Rec. S5429 (daily ed. Sept. 8, 2011)
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`(statement of Sen. Kyl). The deadline helps to ensure that inter partes review is not
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`used as a “tool[] for harassment” by “repeated litigation and administrative
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`attacks.” H.R. Rep. No. 112-98 at 48, as reprinted in 2011 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 78.
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`Allowing such attacks “would frustrate the purpose of the section as providing
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`quick and cost effective alternatives to litigation.” Id.
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`The Patent Act requires a petition to identify all real parties-in-interest
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`“without qualification.” See 35 U.S.C. 312(a); see 37 CFR 42.8 and 42.104. Prior
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`to institution, when a patent owner provides sufficient evidence that reasonably
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`brings into question the accuracy of a petitioner’s identification of RPI, the overall
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`burden remains with the petitioner to establish that it has complied with the
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`statutory requirement to identify all RPI. Zerto, Inc. v. EMC Corp., Case IPR2014-
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`01254, slip op. at 6–7 (PTAB Feb 12, 2015) (Paper 32). The ultimate burden of
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`proof on the issue of RPI also lies with the petitioner. See, e.g., Zerto, Inc. v. EMC
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`Corp., Case IPR2014-01254, slip op. at 6–15 (PTAB Mar. 3, 2015) (Paper 35).
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`This allocation of the burden acknowledges that a petitioner is more likely than a
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`patent owner to be in possession of, or have access to, evidence relevant to the
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`issue. Zerto, slip op. at 6–7.
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`The issue of real party in interest has evolved, and the Board continues to
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`recognize new fact patterns which demonstrate the presence of an un-named RPI.
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`As stated in the Trial Practice Guide, whether a party who is not a named
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`participant in a given proceeding is a “real party-in-interest” to that proceeding “is
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`a highly fact-dependent question.” 77 Fed. Reg. at 48,759 (citing Taylor v.
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`Sturgell, 533 U.S. 880 (2008)). “[T]he spirit of that formulation as to IPR . . .
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`proceedings means that, at a general level, the ‘real party-in-interest’ is the party
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`that desires review of the patent. Thus, the ‘real party-in-interest’ may be the
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`petitioner itself, and/or it may be the real party or parties at whose behest the
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`petition has been filed.” Id. There is no “bright line test.” Id.
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`The Supreme Court listed six categories that create an exception to the
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`common law rule that normally forbids nonparty preclusion in litigation. Taylor,
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`553 U.S. at 893– 895. Under a category relevant here, “a party bound by a
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`judgment may not avoid its preclusive force by relitigating through a proxy.” Id. at
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`895. Taylor refers to a proxy as a “representative or agent of a party who is bound
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`by the prior adjudication.” Id. at 905. Additional relevant factors include:
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`(cid:120) the non-party’s relationship with the petitioner;
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`(cid:120) the non-party’s relationship to the petition itself, including the nature
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`and/or degree of involvement in the filing; and
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`(cid:120) the nature of the entity filing the petition.
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`77 Fed. Reg. at 48,760. Gonzalez v. Banco Cent. Corp., 27 F.3d 751, 759
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`(1st Cir. 1994). The inquiry is not based on isolated facts, but rather must consider
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`the totality of the circumstances. Id.
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`A non-party’s participation with a petitioner may be overt or covert, and the
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`evidence may be direct or circumstantial. Zoll Lifecor Corp. v. Philips Elec. N. Am.
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`Corp., Case IPR2013-00609, slip op. at 10 (PTAB Mar. 20, 2014) (Paper 15).
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`These circumstances may include that a favorable outcome in the Board
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`proceeding would directly benefit the un-named party. Id. at 6.
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`B.
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`RPX is in the business of acting as a proxy for accused infringers
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`like Salesforce
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`RPX has no interest in a review of the AIT patents and RPX has nothing to
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`gain. None. As explained on its website, “RPX Corporation is the leading provider
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`of patent risk solutions, offering defensive buying, acquisition syndication, patent
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`intelligence, insurance services, and advisory services.” Ex. 2016. RPX is in the
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`business of making money for its shareholders and serving the interests of its
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`clients, and these clients pay a lot. RPX has at least 225 clients, and expects that
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`these clients will pay RPX over $250 million in 2015.2 On average, therefore, RPX
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`clients pay it more than $1 million per year. In exchange for these huge sums, RPX
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`solves its clients’ “patent risk” problems.
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`Petitioner’s business model is built upon petitioner acting as an agent or
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`proxy for third parties in cases just like this. RPX states that its interests are “100%
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`aligned” with those of clients
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`. Ex. 2015. To achieve its goals,
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`RPX serves as “an extension of the client’s in-house legal team.” Ex. 2006. RPX
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`2 “Subscription revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2015 was $67.6 million, up
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`5% compared to $64.3 million in the prior year period. There were 225 clients in
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`RPX's network as of June 30, 2015, including 62 insurance policy holders.”
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`“represent[s] clients who are accused of patent infringement, acting as their proxy
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`to ‘selectively clear’ liability for infringement as part of RPX’s ‘patent risk
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`management solutions,’” including “attacking patents that are or will likely be
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`asserted against its clients.” Exs. 2006–2008.
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`This is not mere speculation. The Board has already held that RPX’s
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`business model includes attacking patents in inter partes review petitions on behalf
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`of its clients. RPX Corp. v. VirnetX, Inc., IPR2014-00171, Paper 52, pp. 9-10
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`(P.T.A.B. June 23, 2014). In that case the Board held that “RPX [was] acting as a
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`proxy” for a client when it improperly filed a petition in several IPRs where it was
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`“at most, a ‘nominal plaintiff’ with ‘no substantial interest’” in the proceedings. Id.
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`C.
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`Salesforce has a real and critical interest here
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`Patent owner’s patents clearly are a “patent risk” for Salesforce, but not for
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`RPX. As admitted in the petition, patent owner sued Salesforce for patent
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`infringement in 2013 (the Salesforce Litigation). Salesforce has had its own fair
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`opportunity to have the Board invalidate AIT’s patents, having petitioned for
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`covered business method review of both patents-in-suit. The Board denied the
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`Salesforce petitions. Salesforce v AIT, CBM2014-00162, paper 11 (February 2,
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`2015); CBM2014-00168, paper 10 (February 2, 2015). The Board also denied
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`Salesforce’s requests for rehearing. CBM2014-00162, paper 13 (July 28, 2015);
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`CBM2014-00168, paper 12 (July 28, 2015). Because the Salesforce Litigation is
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`more than one year old, Salesforce is barred from filing an inter partes review
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`under 37 C.F.R. § 42.101(b). Having failed to invalidate patent owner’s patents,
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`Salesforce’s only hope of escaping this “patent risk” is RPX’s proxy petitions.
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`D.
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`RPX has a history of acting as a proxy, and adopted a “willful
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`blindness” strategy to justify ignoring its RPI obligations
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`In RPX Corp. v. VirnetX, Inc., in seven related IPRs, the PTAB held that
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`RPX was “at most, a ‘nominal plaintiff’ with ‘no substantial interest’” in the
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`proceedings. IPR2014-00171, Paper 52, pp. 9-10 (June 23, 2014). In the VirnetX
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`case, RPX’s client Apple Corp. was time-barred from filing the petition. RPX
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`petitioned for IPR without informing the PTAB that it had no interest, and that the
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`sole interested party was Apple.
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`The PTAB’s VirnetX decision has not stopped RPX from filing petitions, but
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`RPX has changed its tactics to better conceal that it is just a proxy. For example, in
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`three pending related IPRs RPX Corp. v. ParkerVision, IPR2014-00946, IPR2014-
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`00947 and IPR2014-00948, RPX seems to be a proxy for its client Qualcomm.3
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`This is no surprise because RPX makes a business of attacking patents in IPR
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`petitions on behalf of its clients. VirnetX, page 4. This is no different than what a
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`law firm does.
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`RPX is trying it again here, albeit using a thicker veil after having learned a
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`bit from its past errors. The conclusion though remains the same. Once again RPX
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`is a proxy. The real party in interest is
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` Salesforce.
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`What RPX does not state affirmatively also is telling—that Salesforce had
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`no role in the petition. The circumstantial evidence – and there is quite a bit –
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`shows that Salesforce is a covert RPI, and that RPX is yet again facilitating
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` IPRs as a tool for harassment through repeated administrative
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`attacks.
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`(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)
`3 See Decision Granting Patent Owner’s Motion for Additional Discovery, Paper
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`25 in IPR2014-00946; Paper 23 in IPR2014-00947; Paper 23 in IPR2014-00948
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`(February 20, 2015).
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`Willful blindness,
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` has no place in
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`patent law. The Supreme Court made that clear in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc., v
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`SEB S.A., 131 S. Ct. 2060 (2011) (applying the doctrine of willful blindness to
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`induced infringement). In Global-Tech, the Supreme Court explained that a
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`willfully blind party is “one who takes deliberate actions to avoid confirming a
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`high probability of wrongdoing and who can almost be said to have actually known
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`the critical facts.” Id., slip opinion at 14. In holding that a party was willfully blind
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`in Global-Tech, the Court said, “On the facts of this case, we cannot fathom what
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`motive Sham could have had for withholding this information other than to
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`manufacture a claim of plausible deniability in the event that his company was
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`later accused of patent infringement.” Id., slip opinion at 15.
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`E.
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`“We work to ensure that each RPX client avoids more in legal costs and
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`settlements each year than they pay RPX in subscription fees.” Ex. 2007.
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`Note, too, how
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`Case No. IPR2015-01751
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`about one month after the PTAB denied Salesforce’s
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`CBM petitions against the AIT patents.
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` According to the AIPLA, a typical
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`budget for an IPR petition in January 2014 was $50,000, and a total cost of
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`$225,000. Ex. 2020 at 21. The three Related IPRs have substantial overlap, so one
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`would expect that the three cases would cost a lot less than three unrelated cases.
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`Thus, the sensible inference here is that
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`Second, Mr. Sanford Robertson has been and continues to be on the Board
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`of Directors for both RPX and Salesforce. This is akin to RPX and Qualcomm
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`sharing counsel, as addressed by the Board in RPX v Qualcomm. By serving as a
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`director for RPX, Mr. Robertson has the opportunity to exert significant but hidden
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`control over this proceeding. By serving as a director for Salesforce, Mr. Robertson
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`advances Salesforce’s interests. By sharing Mr. Robertson with RPX, Salesforce
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`has at least “implicitly authorized RPX to represent [Salesforce] in the instant
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`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
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`proceedings,” which the Board has found to weigh in favor of finding the
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`authorizing party to be an RPI. RPX Corp., IPR2014-00171, Paper 52 at 8-9.
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`Indeed, when RPX was asked to produce documents sufficient to show how
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`Sanford R. Robertson separates his fiduciary duties to RPX and Salesforce despite
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`serving simultaneously as a Board Member of RPX and as a Board Member of
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`Salesforce, (Ex. 2021), RPX
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` The only inference to be drawn is
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`that Mr. Robertson has dutifully served both companies. Yet, like so much of
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`RPX’s business, this falls neatly into RPX’s plausible deniability strategy, which is
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`nothing more than willful blindness.
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`F.
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`RPX is Salesforce’s proxy, just like it was for Apple and others
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`Clearly, because RPX has no interest here and Salesforce is very interested,
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`RPX’s debacle in its IPR petitions for its client Apple, it was only natural for RPX
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`to become more circumspect in hiding from the Board its proxy role. Yet, the
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`evidence plainly shows an implicit authorization to challenge the AIT patents.
`
` After
`
`(cid:3)
`
`14
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`
`Inter Parte— Review
`
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR20l5—01751
`
` This is
`
`easily seen Visually. First, a combined timeline of important events in the
`
`Salesforce Litigation, the prior CBMs and the Related IPRS:
`
`com lalm med
`p
`
`Salesforce mes
`answer
`
`Salesforce files
`agamst
`
`All" flles E_Q_BI3§
`
`
`
`Salesforce
`
`r°q“°5t'°'
`rehearing
`BIAS denies
`SEEM Petitions
`
`stay lifted in
`'aW5“"
`
`PTAB authorizes
`Hmriiotion for
`additional discovery
`PTAB denies requests
`for rehearing
`
`
`
`4— in response to patent owners discovery
`
`request, “Documents sufficient to show the names, dates, locations and times of
`
`any meetings or communications between Salesforce and RPX, or their attorneys,
`
`after the Salesforce Litigation began.”
`
`15
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`(cid:3)
`
`16
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`17
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`(cid:3)
`
`18
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`19
`
`

`
`US. Patent No. 7.356.482
`
`Inter P(m‘e- Review
`
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR20l5-01751
`
`After the PTAB denied Salesforce’s requests for rehearing on 7/28/2015.,
`
` RPX had
`
`already prepared the petitions and was just waiting for the need to file them. Once
`
`the need arose. within a few weeks RPX had filed the petitions in the Related IPRs.
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`The facts here are analogous to those that supported a finding of real party-
`
`in-interest in General Foods, including implicit authorization for the trade
`
`association to represent the paying member, challenged regulations that]did not
`
`affect the trade association itself but only the members, and payments by
`
`association members which provided funding for the litigation. See General Foods
`
`Corp. v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 648 F.2d 784, 787-788 (1st
`
`Cir. 1981); see also Expert Electric, Inc. v. Levine, 554 F.2d 1227, 1233 (2nd Cir.
`
`1977).
`
`In sum, there is a strong public policy toward a petitioner honestly disclosing
`
`the real parties in interest. Patent owner has suffered repeated administrative
`
`attacks – first directly by Salesforce
`
` RPX has not and
`
`cannot establish that it has complied with the statutory requirement to identify all
`
`RPIs. Instead, RPX has dodged the issue, attempting to hide behind the limited
`
`case law addressing certain fact patterns.
`
` RPX
`
`has failed to do so.
`
`(cid:3)
`
`21
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`(cid:3)
`III. Claim construction
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`Claims in an IPR are interpreted according to their broadest reasonable
`
`interpretation. In re Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC, 778 F. 3d 1271 (Fed. Cir.
`
`2015). “Reasonable” breadth is taken from the perspective of one of ordinary skill
`
`in the art. Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1316 (Fed. Cir. 2005).
`
`A.
`
`Level of skill of one of ordinary skill in the art
`
`Patent owner does not dispute petitioner’s definition of the person of
`
`ordinary skill in the art. See Petition, p. 6 (“at least a B.S. in Computer Science or
`
`the equivalent, along with at least two years of computer programming experience
`
`in developing applications for client-server systems”). The Board in this case has
`
`two excellent resources for the perspective of one of ordinary skill in the art --
`
`Judge Pettigrew and lead counsel for patent owner -- at least according to
`
`petitioner’s definition.
`
`(cid:120) Judge Pettigrew earned a B.S., cum laude, in electrical engineering in
`
`1986 and an M.S.E. in electrical engineering in 1987, then worked for
`
`several years as a systems engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories.
`
`(cid:120) Steve Sereboff, lead counsel for patent owner, earned a B.S. in
`
`electrical engineering in 1986, then worked for two years as a
`
`(cid:3)
`
`22
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`programmer developing application programs for client-server
`
`systems.
`
`Thus, Judge Pettigrew, and Mr. Sereboff, prior to the December 1998
`
`priority date of the ‘482 patent, were POSAs, at least according to petitioner’s
`
`definition. Indeed, Judge Pettigrew, and Mr. Sereboff more closely fall within
`
`petitioner’s POSA definition than petitioner’s expert.
`
`As a signatory to this paper, Mr. Sereboff stands behind all of its technical
`
`views, though of course neither is providing testimony. Patent owner trusts Judge
`
`Pettigrew to exercise good judgment in considering the competing technical
`
`arguments of patent owner and petitioner.
`
`B.
`
`“Application” or “application program”
`
`Patent owner for the present purposes accepts petitioner’s reliance upon two
`
`dictionaries as aids in construing the term “application,” but believes that petitioner
`
`mischaracterized those definitions.5 Turning to the dictionaries, we have:
`
`(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:3)
`5(cid:3)Because the term “application” has different meanings in patent law and in
`
`computer technology, for clarity this response uses the term “application program”
`
`to refer to the computer technology.
`
`(cid:3)
`
`23
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`(cid:120) Webster’s: “A program that enables you to do something useful with
`
`the computer, such as writing or accounting (as opposed to utilities,
`
`programs that help you maintain the computer).” Ex. 1009, p. 30.
`
`Webster’s explains that an application program “transforms the
`
`computer into a tool for performing a specific kind of work, such as
`
`word processing, financial analysis (with an electronic spreadsheet),
`
`or desktop publishing.” Ex. 2023, p. 418.
`
`(cid:120) Barron’s: “a computer program that performs useful work not related
`
`to
`
`the computer
`
`itself. Examples
`
`include word processors,
`
`spreadsheets, accounting systems, and engineering programs.
`
`Contrast UTILITY; OPERATING SYSTEM.” Ex. 1010, p. 22.
`
`Thus, an “application” or “application program” is more than just some
`
`collection of computer instructions. It is a higher level program for use by an end-
`
`user to perform a specific kind of work that is useful to the end-user. Its work is not
`
`related to the computer itself, and therefore is not a utility. While an application
`
`program can perform specific tasks, its purpose is broader – performing useful
`
`work.
`
`Notably, petitioner proposes a definition which is different from its expert.
`
`Compare petitioner’s definition, “a program executable by a computer to do
`
`(cid:3)
`
`24
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`something useful other than maintaining the computer itself,” petition, p. 10, with
`
`the expert’s quotation of the two dictionary definitions and implicit inclusion of
`
`those definitions into his own. Ex. 1002, para. 21. Because petitioner itself
`
`disagrees with its expert’s definition, both should be disregarded. Petitioner’s
`
`definition is unreasonably broad; the definition of petitioner’s expert is imprecise
`
`and fails to capture the underlying meaning proposed in the dictionaries which one
`
`of ordinary skill in the art would have appreciated.
`
`C.
`
`“change management layer” element
`
`As shown in the specification and prosecution history, the “change
`
`management layer” automatically detects changes which impact how the
`
`application program should operate. These changes may arise from changes to
`
`metadata about the application program or other changes external to the application
`
`program. Petitioner summarily and incorrectly argues that the term “change
`
`management layer” (independent claims 1 and 41) is not defined in the
`
`specification. The “change management layer” limitation recites:
`
`a change management layer for automatically detecting changes
`
`that affect an application
`
`(cid:3)
`
`25
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Response
`
`Case No. IPR2015-01751
`
`(cid:3)
`
`This limitation, and especially the phrase, “changes that affect an
`
`application,” takes on a more particular meaning when read in light of the
`
`specification. In particular, the specification explains:
`
`E. Change Management Layer
`
`The change layer primarily involves an intranet or the Internet
`
`and uses one or more intelligent agents (IA's) that continually search on
`
`the Web for relevant changes in a selected business area. The changes
`
`may be regulatory and/or non-regulatory, and each IA is defined by
`
`rules and constraints that focus on the selected business area. When an
`
`IA discovers a relevant change, the IA obtains all available information
`
`concerning this change and delivers this information to the Java data
`
`management layer. A user may configure the system to apply pre-
`
`defined rules to the change in order to determine whether the change
`
`information delivered by the IA will be accepted and acted upon by the
`
`Java data management layer. Alternatively, the user may decide
`
`manually (or manually override the pre-defined rules) whether the
`
`delivered change information will be accepted and acted upon, or
`
`ignored.
`
`(cid:3)
`
`26
`
`

`
`U.S. Patent No. 7,356,482
`Inter Parte- Review
`Patent Owner’s Preliminary Respons

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