throbber
Trials@uspto.gov
`571-272-7822
`
`
`
`
`Paper No. 25
`Entered: October 12, 2022
`
`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`______________
`
`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`______________
`
`CONFIGIT A/S,
`Petitioner,
`
`v.
`
`VERSATA DEVELOPMENT GROUP, INC.,
`Patent Owner.
`______________
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`______________
`
`Record of Oral Hearing
`Held: September 16, 2022
`______________
`
`
`
`Before KEVIN F. TURNER, DEBRA K. STEPHENS, and
`FRANCES L. IPPOLITO, Administrative Patent Judges.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`
`
`APPEARANCES:
`
`ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONER:
`
`
`JEFFREY SHNEIDMAN, ESQ.
`KENNETH DARBY, ESQ.
`Fish & Richardson, P.C.
`One Marina Park Drive
`Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1878
`(617) 542-5070 (Shneidman)
`shneidman@fr.com
`
`
`
`ON BEHALF OF THE PATENT OWNER:
`
`
`ROBERT STERNE, ESQ.
`JAMES HIETALA, ESQ.
`Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC
`1100 New York Avenue, NW
`Washington, D.C. 20005
`(202) 772-8555 (Sterne)
`Rsterne-PTAB@sternekessler.com
`
`
`
`KENT CHAMBERS, ESQ.
`Terrile, Cannatti & Chambers LLP
`11675 Jollyville Road, Suite 100
`Austin, Texas 78759
`(512) 338-9100
`kchambers@tcciplaw.com
`
`
`
`
`The above-entitled matter came on for hearing on Friday, September
`
`16, 2022, commencing at 3:40 p.m. PT, at the University of Oregon School
`of Law, Portland Campus.
`
`
`
`
`2
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`
`P R O C E E D I N G S
`- - - - -
`
`3:41 p.m.
`JUDGE TURNER: Hello, everyone. As part of the introduction, we
`
`are here for oral argument for IPR 2021-01055, Configit v. Versata
`Development Group, involving U.S. Patent No. 6,386,766.
`
`The panel would like to thank the University of Oregon Law School
`for its hospitality in hosting this oral hearing. I am Judge Turner and with me
`today are Judges Stephens and Ippolito. We're going to start off with
`appearances, and I've already talked to counsel and asked them to please
`come to the microphone in the center so we can get everything on the record.
`
`So we'll start with appearances. And starting off with Petitioner,
`please enter your appearance in the record if you could, please, stating who's
`speaking and such.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Thank you, Your Honors. My name is Jeffrey
`Shneidman on behalf of the Petitioner, with the law firm Fish & Richardson,
`joined by my colleague today and lead counsel in this case, Kenneth Darby.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: Thank you. And from Patent Owner, please.
`
`MR. CHAMBERS: For the Patent Owner, I'm Kent Chambers. I'm a
`partner with Terrile, Cannatti & Chambers, and I'll be speaking.
`At the table with me is James Hietala with Sterne and Kessler and also Rob
`Sterne from Sterne and Kessler.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: Thank you very much. I'm going to set forth the
`procedure for the oral hearing today that we're going to be going through
`which -- at the party's request were part of the oral hearing order which was
`paper 22.
`
`3
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`Each party will have 45 minutes of total argument. We'll begin with
`
`Petitioner who will be presented its case with regard to the challenged claims
`and the grounds set forth in the petition.
`
`The Petitioner may reserve time for rebuttal. When Petitioner comes
`up to speak if they can let me know which time they want to save for rebuttal,
`I will endeavor to try and provide you with a five-minute warning. When
`you get close to that time, then a two-minute warning in the rebuttal period.
`
`Patent Owner may respond to Petitioner's argument and may reserve
`time for surrebuttal as well. Petitioner may then present its rebuttal followed
`by Patent Owner's surrebuttal. Please note that rebuttal arguments are limited
`to rebutting issues raised in the opposing sides; arguments and are not to be
`used to initiate new arguments.
`
`I've already talked about that I will attempt to try and keep time.
`When it's your turn, please let me know how much time you want for
`rebuttal.
`
`Just a few couple more things before we go. It is my understanding
`that we're not discussing any information that the parties deem confidential in
`this hearing.
`
`I know that there was some information under seal. I'll ask Petitioner
`when you come up if -- I assume, from going through the demonstratives,
`there's nothing we're discussing today. Obviously, this hearing is open to the
`public. So please keep that in mind. We've got a lot of public here today.
`
`Second, please be clear as possible during your argument regarding
`what slide you may be referring to or what exhibit so that the record is clear
`and that we may follow along.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`4
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`We have the demonstratives in front of us. So there's no need to
`
`provide us any additional copies unless you deem to do so.
`
`Last but not least, we're also going to go off the record briefly at the
`end of the hearing to see if the court reporter needs any spellings or other
`clarifications before adjourn.
`
`So with that, we will proceed unless let me just -- any questions before
`we proceed from Petitioner? Any questions from Patent Owner's counsel?
`Any questions?
`
`Okay. Petitioner, you may proceed when ready.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Thank you, Your Honors. And I'd like to
`reserve 15 minutes for rebuttal.
`
`So as I introduce myself, we have the honor of representing the
`Petitioner, Configit A/S in this IPR trial for the '766 patent. And that patent
`is assigned to Patent Owner Versata.
`
`Moving to slide 2, the '766 patent concerns testing in a product
`configurator. The product configurator software, I'd like to thank Simmone
`for the introduction, is software that allows a user to customize a product for
`manufacture or purchase.
`
`And such software has been used since the 1980s. Product
`configurators allow users to configure complex systems such as airplanes or
`automobiles or elevators or whatever.
`
`And on the screen, here is an example of one of the pieces of prior art
`that's used in the petition. This is the salesPLUS reference, Exhibit 1006.
`
`Now one example I'd like to call out is if you wanted to buy a car as
`one type of thing you might configure, you can imagine that you might want
`to go and buy a car with heated seats.
`
`5
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`If you go to the car dealer, perhaps they say, well, if you want to buy
`
`heated seats, you have to buy the top of the line leather trim package. And if
`you want to buy the cheaper cloth piece, for example, you are restricted from
`buying heated seats.
`
`And so the configurator is going to capture in rules the interactions
`between these parts. And it's going to allow the user to select what types of
`parts go into the product that they ultimately want configured.
`
`So the example I just gave and which I'll refer back to later in the
`presentation, heated seats option requires leather trim. It could be one way of
`encoding that rule that heated seats require leather trim. And cloth trim
`excludes heated seats option. So again, if we want to have the requirement
`that if you have leather trim, you need to have leather trim in order to buy
`heated seats. The heated seats option requires leather trim, and cloth trim
`excludes heated seats option.
`
`That could be two types of rules that would be in this figure. And you
`can actually see in this particular slide on the upper right trims, leather trim.
`You can imagine the interplay with the heated seats.
`
`So advancing to slide 12, this trial is actually a one element case. And
`what I mean by that is the Patent Owner does not contest Petitioner's grounds
`of art except for one claim construction. And I want to note at the outset that
`no matter how the Board decides this claim construction issue, the prior art of
`record invalidates the challenged claim.
`
`Patent owner also raises two smaller issues in the Patent Owner
`response as well that we can address if the Court desires.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`
`6
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`Turning to slide 13, the main dispute is the construction of this term,
`
`configuration error. If you see here, Claim 1, a method of using a computer
`system to test a product configuration for configuration errors.
`
`Now what is a configuration error? So turning to slide 14, the petition
`proposed plain meaning. So the meaning of the configuration error is just a
`configuration error.
`
`The Board adopted the Patent Owner's proposal made in its Patent
`Owner preliminary response that a configuration error means, quote, one the
`condition that occurs when a rule or series of rules is not properly defined
`and produces an undesired effect, or two, a series of improperly defined rules
`causes a part to be in more than one state at the same time.
`
`Now the Patent Owner argued in the Patent Owner preliminary
`response that a configuration error was more limited. And the Board -- well,
`I should say what the Patent Owner argued was that it should be errors
`internal to the configuration engine. And the Board properly rejected that
`limitation in its institution decision.
`
`And we ask that the Board do so again now where the Patent Owner
`repeats this argument in its Patent Owner response.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: Counsel, this is Judge Turner. Just a quick
`question, maybe, hopefully, edifying. So a hypothetical, let's say that we
`tweak our construction of configuration error and we take out part 1 and we
`just have part 2.
`
`And this is obviously nobody is arguing this. But let's say it's just part
`2. It's a series of improperly defined rules, cause the part to be in more than
`one state one at a time. If that were in this hypothetical. If that were the
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`7
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`claim construction, would Oracle 1 and 2 still -- or I guess I'm trying to make
`sure. Are we focused on one or two or both or maybe help me out?
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: I see 2 as a subset of 1 that a rule or series of
`rules not properly defined and produces an undesired result. One example of
`that is a series of improperly designed rules that causes a part to be in more
`than one state at the same time.
`
`I would say that Oracle 1, it does have a notion of a contradiction
`where -- and I'll get to this example later where essentially you can have the
`requirement that heated seats both be selected and not selected.
`
`However, I think it would not be a proper construction to limit to the
`second phrase only given that the patent, column 1, line 55, gives theses two
`as examples of what the configuration error might be.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: And just to follow up. But I guess my question is,
`it seems like that would be Oracle functioning properly if it says you can
`have this but you can't have that.
`
`But would they be in -- would it cause it to be in more than on state?
`That seems like that's a different type of error that you're talking about. I'm
`just trying to hone in on what you're -- because I see it maybe more as we're
`focused on one. But if you see it as two, I'm open to that construction that
`you're talking about.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: No, I think it's the proper focus probably more
`on one as well. And so I would perhaps leave it at that except to say that I do
`think that Oracle 1 does have a concept of state and it does potentially have a
`set of -- you can construct a set o rules where the state has to be conflicting
`and that would be an error.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: Okay. Thank you.
`
`8
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Thank you.
`
`JUDGE IPPOLITO: Counsel, I'm going to follow up with that. So I
`
`think your position is claim construction is not dispositive in favor of Patent
`Owner regardless of what construction we take.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: No matter construction you take, the prior art of
`record invalidates the patents as obvious, yes.
`
`JUDGE IPPOLITO: Okay. Thank you.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: And just to also be clarifying, so if we were to say
`it's internal to the configuration engine, Petitioner's position is Oracle 1 and 2
`still would teach or suggest all of the elements of the --
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Abb.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: -- challenged claim. Thank you.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: I will talk about later why I don't think the
`limitation -- the extra limitation of the Patent Owner puts on this claim makes
`sense.
`
`Again, I ask respectfully that the Board again reject that language. So
`let me turn to slide 15. And what I'd like to do is review how the prior art
`and in particular with the base reference Oracle 1 how that Oracle 1 reference
`is used in combination to render the claims invalid.
`
`Second, I'll explain why Versata's extra claim construction argument is
`incorrect. And Versata's argument again is that these configuration errors are
`internal to the configuration engine.
`
`I'll explain that in a moment. But to preview why that argument, why
`that limitation is not correct, A, the Patent Owner is adding extra limitations
`that simply are not present in the claims.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`9
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`B, the '799 patent, the specification itself, shows examples of
`
`configuration errors that are not internal to the configuration engine. And so
`we would be excluding examples in the specification which is presumptively
`not right.
`
`And C, a person of ordinary skill in the art would not have known
`configuration errors to be so limited.
`
`And then I'll show why the prior art is also invalidating when we use
`that overly limiting construction.
`
`Now I should note here that Petitioner's arguments are not rebutted
`which is to say we walk through these arguments in our Petitioner reply and
`the Patent Owner did not submit a surreply addressing any of these
`arguments.
`
`So if we turn now to slide 17, this is reviewing the Oracle reference in
`view of the Board's construction.
`
`So Oracle 1 is a prior art manual for the Oracle configurator which
`predated the patent in question.
`
`You can see it's described here as a tool for configuring part or all of
`your products or services.
`
`The parts make up the product. The rules govern how those parts go
`together. And these configuration rules constrain the relationships of the
`parts of the product.
`
`Moving to slide 18, Oracle 1 provides a test/debug section in the
`developer manual which is Oracle 1. And what it describes, among other
`things, is testing your configuration rules.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`
`10
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`It says you test your configuration rules to determine that they're
`
`giving desired results. And at the bottom, the very last there, it says, you
`determine what rule is causing problems in the Oracle run time configurator.
`
`So turning now to slide 20, Oracle 1 generates explanation data to
`provide an explanation to any detected configuration error in the product
`configuration.
`
`And let me take a moment here to address what I think are perhaps the
`differences between the Board's construction and the Patent Owner's extra
`limitation.
`
`If we jump back for a moment to the Board's construction on slide 14,
`I'll focus on the first part of this construction which is the condition that
`occurs when a rule or series of rules is not properly defined and produced an
`undesired effect. Versata's extra limitation again is that this configuration
`error is internal to the configuration engine.
`
`And now, with that in mind, let's go back to the configuration error
`messages of Oracle 1.
`
`Now the Board's construction would include both of these
`configuration errors whereas the Patent Owner's construction --
`
` JUDGE STEPHENS: Sir, is this section in the test and debug --
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Yes, it is.
`
`JUDGE STEPHENS: -- description?
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Oh, this section here, it is in the following sense.
`
`So test/debug, the answer is literally no. But the test/debug section
`describes how it is that -- if we walk through here on slide 19, it says at the
`bottom in the test/debug section, if you make a selection that violates a
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`11
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`configuration rule, the configuration window displays a message describing
`the violation and your options for dealing with it.
`
`And so these are fairly described in Oracle 1 as what happens when
`there's a contradiction.
`
`So you're absolutely right, Judge Stephens. This is above -- this is
`around page 50 or 51 of the Oracle 1 reference.
`
`JUDGE STEPHENS: So is this a part where the person configuring it
`decides how they want the configuration file they create to appear to the end
`user? Like, if they make it versus testing, would they create it?
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: So I believe that in the test/debug process when
`you're debugging, the bug is the error in the configurator in the configuration
`rule which may not be operating correctly.
`And this is the feedback that you would see in the process of doing
`that test/debug.
`But it's also perhaps the same as what the user would see ultimately if
`you deployed this system.
`So the way that the user -- the way that the configuration engineer tests
`and debugs its system is essentially by walking through these steps and
`seeing if they get what they are expecting.
`JUDGE STEPHENS: Okay. Because I sort of thought there were two
`different types of errors.
`One is the person creating the configuration file and errors in the
`configuration file and errors in the configuration file and then the end user
`using it and using it in a way that's going to break a rule.
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Let me jump ahead to a statement, for example,
`that the opposing expert makes.
`
`12
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`
`And it's on slide 25. And the way that the opposing expert described
`testing is that a configuration engineer can assume the role of the
`configuration user during a model testing process in order to validate that a
`given product model does not contain the configuration errors contemplated
`by the '766 patent.
`In the bottom you see that whether it produces an undesired effect or
`results in more than one state according to the intent of the configuration
`engineer.
`
`So that's their expert, what they say. And that's what this is basically
`saying is when we go back to slide 19, this process of doing this
`configuration in the test/debug is you are -- before you're deploying this
`thing, you're seeing what the users would see.
`
`And you're finding the error before it gets deployed to a real system.
`Is that helpful?
`
`JUDGE STEPHENS: Yes, thank you.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: But is it problematic if indeed you're seeing
`different errors? I mean, are you seeing errors shown to one acting in that
`role that it's being shown to somebody in the other role?
`
`I mean, you basically had the other side's expert saying, yes, they were
`as a configuration engineer, I'm taking the part of the user. But do you get the
`same error? I mean, can you know that from what's disclosed in the article?
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Well, what you know from Oracle, for instance,
`in testing your configuration rules, you know that you are going to determine
`what problems are occurring. And the way that Oracle 1 teaches what
`problems are occurring is here on slide 19.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`13
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`If you make a selection that violates configuration or rule, you get the
`
`message. I don't think Oracle 1 says there's a special class of error messages
`that go to just the configuration engineer, at least that's not what we're cited
`to.
`JUDGE TURNER: So I mean, I guess that leads to my other question.
`
` So if we were to find -- and I understand that wouldn't be your position. But
`if we were to find that we have to basically put ourselves in view of the claim
`as a construction engineer in order to perform the claim, then that makes the
`obviousness a little bit hazier, I would think, based on what you just said, I
`would think, or maybe not.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Well, this is the Oracle developer manual again.
` So this is the thing designed for the developer, the configuration engineer.
`
`If you look at the context of this test/debug section in the upper right
`there, it's test/debug in the lower right. It's constructing a configurator. I
`mean, this is what the configuration engineer is referencing using.
`
`I'll just make also the observation that the claims don't say anything
`about who is operating it. And so there's no limitation in that way. And I
`believe the patent itself even -- anyway, that's my answer.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: Okay.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: So going back to the heated seats example here,
`the Board's construction would include both of the configuration errors. And
`the way I can demonstrate this, so for example, with the heated seats, you'll
`remember my example was that rule 1 was that heated seats option requires
`leather trim. And rule 2 was that cloth trim excludes the heated seats option.
`
`But let's say the configuration engineer messed up and let's say rule 2
`is incorrectly inputted. So rule 1 is the same. Heated seats option requires
`
`14
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`leather trim. But the incorrect second rule is that leather trim excludes heated
`seats.
`So it's a contradiction because if you select heated seats, it requires
`
`leather trim. If you select leather trim, it excludes the heated seats.
`
`So that's an example of what we see on the left. It's the type of
`configuration error that certainly falls within the scope of the Board's
`construction which is when a rule or series of rules is not properly defined
`and produces an undesired effect, again, on slide 20 here.
`
`Now consider the error message on the right. Imagine in our car
`example that there are 15 tire sizes. And you can select tire size 1, 2, 3, all
`the way up to 15. And imagine the configuration engineer makes a mistake
`and puts in a rule that says the maximum tire size should be less than 10
`when it was intended to be less than or equal to 15.
`
`And that's a configuration error that's also within the scope of the
`Board's construction. It's also a rule that's not properly defined and produces
`an undesired effect. But it's not an error that meets the Patent Owner's
`limitation of an error being internal to the configuration engine because what
`the Patent Owner means by internal is that there has to be a logical
`contradiction.
`
`And I'll talk more about Versata's limitation in a moment and why it's
`not correct. But I think the slide is useful in understanding the difference
`between the Board's construction and the limitation being sought.
`
`Let's move to slide 22 and talk about why Versata's limitation is not
`correct. The first is a simple plain meaning argument. The word, internal,
`only appears twice in the specification of the patent and never in the same
`sentence or context of the configuration error.
`
`15
`
`

`

`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`26
`
`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`And the patent just doesn't make this distinction. Similarly, the word,
`
`engine, although it appears in the specification, is never in the context of a
`configuration error.
`
`So the plan meaning argument is simply you have to insert words here.
` You'd have to insert internal and engine variously throughout the claim.
`
`Second, turning to slide 23, the simplest example of a configuration
`error is not consistent with the Patent Owner's construction.
`
`In other words, what the patent has as a state error, which is one of the
`types of configuration errors in the '766 patent, it says, for example, that the
`simplest type of state errors occur when a rule has been accidently written or
`omitted or written.
`
`And the simple case is, for example, part A excludes part C. So you
`can imagine the rule, leather trim excludes radio, something that shouldn't
`really be related.
`
`It could be a simple rule that was not properly defined and it produces
`an undesired effect. But it's not internal to the configuration engine. It's not
`something that produces an inconsistency.
`
`So it's a simple example in the patent that's excluded by Patent
`Owner's limitation.
`
`Turning to slide 24, just briefly, it's also an unsupported position.
`
`Versata has written in its Patent Owner response at page 21 that those
`of skill in the art would know that configuration errors are internal to the
`configurator.
`
`So it's those of skill in the art. So who does Versata consider skill in
`the art's expert? And Versata doesn't cite its expert at all in this section. And
`why is that?
`
`16
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`Well, perhaps the reason we saw a moment ago turning to slide 25.
`
`This is actually a snippet from the Versata expert declaration in support of
`the Patent Owner of preliminary response.
`
`And the version of the declaration submitted for the Patent Owner
`response later in the process deleted some paragraphs but otherwise kept the
`testimony the same.
`
`And one of the paragraphs it deleted is this one. And one reason
`perhaps because you see that while Versata's Patent Owner response claims
`that errors are limited to errors internal to the configuration engine and do not
`deal with end user errors.
`
`That's precisely what Versata's expert is saying you do to determine if
`you have this kind of error.
`
`You assume the role, it's their italics, of a configuration user during the
`model testing process to determine whether or not there's an undesired effect
`or results in more than one state according to the intent of the configuration
`engineer.
`
`And so there's no support on the expert side, the way that they try to
`say what this person of ordinary skill in the art would know, is by citing Dr.
`Kristin Wood, our expert. They attack Dr. Wood. In short, Dr. Wood's
`declaration does not use the word, internal. I see do you have a question?
`
`JUDGE IPPOLITO: I do. I was waiting for you to finish your
`thought. Is there a dispute about the level of ordinary skill in the art?
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: I don't believe there is, no.
`
`JUDGE IPPOLITO: Okay. Thank you.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`
`17
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Versata did not ask about internal errors in Dr.
`
`Wood's deposition and Dr. Wood's testimony. So I want to pause before I go
`on to see if there's any other questions.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: Real quick. I mean, I think if I take Patent
`Owner's point, they're sort of saying that when Dr. Wood talks about errors,
`in the one part, he is really sort of talking about this type of error. And then
`in another part, he's sort of speaking more generally.
`
`Isn't there a distinction that even Petitioner could admit that there's a
`distinction here in the declaration? Or you certainly don't have to admit it if
`you don't want to.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: I understand the question. I think there's
`different kinds of configuration errors.
`
`And I would point the Board to the testimony. Exhibit 2006 is the live
`testimony of Dr. Wood, page 60, line 1 where there's testimony about the
`types of configuration errors.
`
`In going through and discussing, quote, syntax types of errors,
`semantic errors, logical errors, logical rule errors, there's just many types of
`configuration errors.
`
`Some of these, I think, are logical in contradictions, and some of them
`are simply leather trim excludes radio.
`
`It's not setting up a contradiction and may not necessarily be -- well,
`what my opposing counsel says is internal to the configuration engine.
`
`All right. So then moving on to slide 27, this is the Versata limiting
`construction.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`
`18
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`In the yellow you see here, so again, the Versata limiting, extra
`
`limiting construction is that the configuration errors have to be internal to the
`configuration engine.
`
`And Versata makes the claim that nothing in Oracle 1 teaches or
`remotely suggests detecting errors within the configuration engine itself.
`
`I'll just point that's not correct. Oracle 1, if the requirement is to detect
`configuration errors within the configuration engine itself, Oracle 1 teaches
`determining what rules causing problems in the Oracle 1 configurator.
`
`So Oracle 1 is, in fact, describing the situation where the errors are
`internal to the configuration itself.
`
`And the heated seats example is one where the contradiction is
`demonstrative of that.
`
`In the interest of time, I don't think I'm going to go through slides 28,
`29, and 30.
`
`They go through a number of statements that the Patent Owner makes
`about Oracle 1 that are not correct.
`
`And the primary way of trying to attack a Petitioner's position under its
`limiting construction is to simply take a bunch of statements about what
`Oracle 1 supposedly does not do.
`
`And in these slides, which I won't go through, I think, for interest of
`time unless the Board had questions, show why each of these statements is
`not correct.
`
`So I'd like to pause and see if there's any questions on the substance
`here before I move on to covering maybe at least one of the two smaller
`issues.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`19
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`And I'll point out just on the substance there's no other claim. There's
`
`no other issue in dispute.
`
`So it essentially comes down to this question of claim construction.
`
`But as I said at the outset, no matter how the Board decides on claim
`construction, the prior art invalidates.
`
`JUDGE TURNER: I don't have a question, but I will say you're very
`close to your five-minute mark.
`
`So you've got five more minutes before you go into your rebuttal time.
`
`MR. SHNEIDMAN: Okay. Maybe I'll just hit one of these then. So
`Oracle 1 and Oracle 2 are indeed prior art. The Patent Owner puts in a fairly
`cursory argument.
`
`I'd say that there's no evidence that these are manuals for the same
`product and there's no reliable evidence that either references prior art.
`
`This may be a copy and paste error. A lot of the Patent Owner
`response is lifted from the Patent Owner preliminary response. And I don't
`think there is a section 5 that addresses this. The petition, to be clear,
`however, did point out how Oracle 1 and Oracle 2 are manuals together for
`the Oracle configurated product.
`
`And we've put forward a large set of evidence that is prior art. And
`the Board correctly found starting at the bottom of the slide of slide 33 that
`the Petitioner had shown for purposes for institution that Oracle 1 and Oracle
`2 were publicly available before the '766 priority date.
`
`And the record has only gotten better which is the material under seal
`further collaborates and corroborates the showing that we made in the initial
`petition.
`
`1
`2
`3
`4
`5
`6
`7
`8
`9
`10
`11
`12
`13
`14
`15
`16
`17
`18
`19
`20
`21
`22
`23
`24
`25
`
`20
`
`

`

`IPR2021-01055
`Patent 6,836,766 B1
`
`All right. With that, I think I'll stop unless the Board has any questions
`
`and reserve the rest for rebuttal.
`
`JUDGE IPPOLITO: Just one. There's no motion to exclude in this
`case. Is that correct?
`
`MR. SHNE

This document is available on Docket Alarm but you must sign up to view it.


Or .

Accessing this document will incur an additional charge of $.

After purchase, you can access this document again without charge.

Accept $ Charge
throbber

Still Working On It

This document is taking longer than usual to download. This can happen if we need to contact the court directly to obtain the document and their servers are running slowly.

Give it another minute or two to complete, and then try the refresh button.

throbber

A few More Minutes ... Still Working

It can take up to 5 minutes for us to download a document if the court servers are running slowly.

Thank you for your continued patience.

This document could not be displayed.

We could not find this document within its docket. Please go back to the docket page and check the link. If that does not work, go back to the docket and refresh it to pull the newest information.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

You need a Paid Account to view this document. Click here to change your account type.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

Set your membership status to view this document.

With a Docket Alarm membership, you'll get a whole lot more, including:

  • Up-to-date information for this case.
  • Email alerts whenever there is an update.
  • Full text search for other cases.
  • Get email alerts whenever a new case matches your search.

Become a Member

One Moment Please

The filing “” is large (MB) and is being downloaded.

Please refresh this page in a few minutes to see if the filing has been downloaded. The filing will also be emailed to you when the download completes.

Your document is on its way!

If you do not receive the document in five minutes, contact support at support@docketalarm.com.

Sealed Document

We are unable to display this document, it may be under a court ordered seal.

If you have proper credentials to access the file, you may proceed directly to the court's system using your government issued username and password.


Access Government Site

We are redirecting you
to a mobile optimized page.





Document Unreadable or Corrupt

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket

We are unable to display this document.

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket