`U.S. Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
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`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`
`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
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`Bright House Networks, LLC,
`WideOpenWest Finance, LLC,
`Knology of Florida, Inc.
`Birch Communications, Inc.
`Petitioners
`
`v.
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`Focal IP, LLC,
`Patent Owner
`
`Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
`Filing Date: Jun. 22, 2010
`Issue Date: Jun. 4, 2013
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`BRANCH CALLING AND CALLER ID BASED CALL ROUTING
`TELEPHONE FEATURES
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`Petition for Inter Partes Review of
`U.S. Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
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`Inter Partes Review No. [________]
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`DM2\6931386.1
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`BHN, et al. v. FOCAL IP, LLC
`FOCAL IP, LLC EX2023 - 1
`Bright House Petition Excerpts
`IPR2016-01261
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`
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`Petition for Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
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`even recite call features. A year later, that application was allowed and the ’113
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`patent issued on June 4, 2013. Id., 15.
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`However, it was well-known and standard practice to implement subscriber-
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`selected call features using intelligent servers located within, or coupled to
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`centralized “switching facility[ies]” in the PSTN. §V.E; TLP ¶¶77–78.
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`C. Claim Construction Under 37 C.F.R. § 42.104(b)(3)
`Claim terms construed during inter partes review are given their broadest
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`reasonable interpretation (BRI). 37 C.F.R. §42.100(b). Claim terms that are not
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`construed are to be given their plain and ordinary meaning to a POSA at the time
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`of the claimed invention when read in light of the specification and file history.
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`Petitioners believe the terms in the challenged claims are readily understood by a
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`POSA in light of the specification and file history and have applied them in
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`accordance with their plain and ordinary meaning. Petitioners provide additional
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`explanation of a POSA’s understanding where relevant.
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`D. A POSA’s Level of Skill in the Art
`A POSA is a hypothetical person of ordinary creativity presumed to be
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`aware of all pertinent prior art and thinking along conventional wisdom. For the
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`’113 patent, a POSA would have been an engineer or computer scientist with at
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`least a bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience in electrical engineering, or a
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`related field, and at least three years of industry experience in the fields of analog
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`BHN, et al. v. FOCAL IP, LLC
`FOCAL IP, LLC EX2023 - 2
`Bright House Petition Excerpts
`IPR2016-01261
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`Petition for Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
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`geographical hierarchy, where tandem switches serve to interconnect geographical
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`regions and edge switches connect between tandem switches and end-user devices,
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`like telephones, within a local area. TLP ¶53; EX1037, 64-69, 106-13, 119-22,
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`137-38, Fig. 4-4, 111; EX1001, 1:42-51.
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`In the traditional Bell telephone system of the 1980s, edge switches were
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`operated by local telephone service providers. TLP ¶54; EX1037, 59-62, 90-92,
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`97-100, 106-13. Calls that were required to be routed to tandem switches for
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`connection to other edge switches were known as long-distance calls and generally
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`incurred a toll. TLP ¶55; EX1037, 64, 106-13.
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`Call Components—Signaling and Media
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`3.
`Traditional telephone calls consisted of two distinct parts—signaling and
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`media. TLP ¶56; EX1037, 131-36, Fig. 8-1, 133. The signaling portion was used
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`for call setup and feature selection, and the media portion consisted of the actual
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`voice traffic. Id.; TLP ¶57; EX1051, 9-12, 22-25. Once a telephone was answered,
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`the call accept signal was used to finalize the path, or circuit, over which the voice
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`traffic (i.e. media) of the call traveled. TLP ¶57; EX1037, 95-102, Fig. 3-8, 101,
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`131-35; EX1027, 9-10. Signaling protocols, such as Signaling System 7 (SS7),
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`were used in parallel to notify the switches of a completed call. TLP ¶58–59;
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`EX1027, 1.
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`4.
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`PSTN Call Features and Intelligent Networks
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`BHN, et al. v. FOCAL IP, LLC
`FOCAL IP, LLC EX2023 - 3
`Bright House Petition Excerpts
`IPR2016-01261
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`Petition for Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
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`subscriber access to the database anytime, such as over the Internet. EX1003, 7:44-
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`50. Archer further teaches that end-user devices, such as computers (e.g., 134b)
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`can use web browsers. EX1003, 8:2-11. Web browsers are software that allow
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`users to view web pages provided on the Internet by web servers. EX1003, 8:8-10,
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`TLP ¶80; EX1049, 124-27. As a result, a POSA would be motivated to combine
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`Archer’s database (138) and server processor (128) with a web server and web-
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`enabled processor to allow subscribers to change their call forwarding settings in
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`database (138) over the Internet at any time and to satisfy the commercial pressures
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`driving services online during the “Dot.Com” boom. TLP ¶117.
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`(iv) Ground 2: To the extent the Board does not find Archer teaches and
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`renders obvious a web server with a web-enabled processing system, the
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`combination with Chang renders this limitation obvious. It would have been
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`obvious to combine the web-based user control interface of Chang with the server
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`processor and database of Archer.
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`(v) Chang teaches a web server with a web-enabled processor. Chang
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`teaches a web server with a web-enabled processor for allowing users to set call
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`features in the form of its Secure Access Platform (25) that controls the SCPs (19)
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`of the PSTN Intelligent Network. EX1004, Fig. 1 (19, 25), TLP ¶¶118–19.
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`Chang’s Secure Access Platform (25) connects over the Internet (27) to a user
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`terminal (29) that has a web browser (293). EX1004, Fig. 1 (25, 27, 29), 2 (25, 27,
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`BHN, et al. v. FOCAL IP, LLC
`FOCAL IP, LLC EX2023 - 4
`Bright House Petition Excerpts
`IPR2016-01261
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`Petition for Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 8,457,113 B2
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`routing calls from and to subscribers within a local geographic area and switching
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`facilities for routing calls to other edge switches or other switching facilities local
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`or in other geographic areas…” Archer teaches that one of its communications
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`networks contains the claimed edge switches and switching facilities in the form of
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`circuit-switched networks (118, 136) which are preferably the PSTN. EX1003, 5:5-
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`32, TLP ¶¶135–36. The PSTN consists of switches known as tandem switches or
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`class 4 switches (switching facilities in the claims) which serve to interconnect
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`between different geographical regions and edge switches or class 5 switches,
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`which connect to end-user devices, like telephones, within a local geographic area.
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`EX1001, 1:45-50; EX1004, Fig. 1, 7:43-8:24, 18:66-19:12; TLP ¶¶136–39;
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`EX1037, 64-69, 11-92, 106-13, 139-45; EX1010, 87 n.1. To the extent the Board
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`finds that the PSTN does not expressly disclose the claimed switching facilities
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`and edge switches, they are inherent because the PSTN’s structure (Archer’s
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`preferred circuit-switched network 118) necessarily requires tandem switches (i.e.,
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`switching facilities) interconnecting to edge switches or obvious because that is the
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`only way the PSTN is structured. TLP ¶¶140–41; EX1003, 5:23-25.
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`(d) Claims 1[pre(iv) and 94[pre(iv)] (Grounds 1-2): “…the method
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`[communication network] for enabling voice communication from a calling party
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`to a called party across both the packet network and the second network [circuit-
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`switched network and a packet network], the method comprising the steps of [the
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`DM2\6931386.1
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`BHN, et al. v. FOCAL IP, LLC
`FOCAL IP, LLC EX2023 - 5
`Bright House Petition Excerpts
`IPR2016-01261
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