`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Paper No. __
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`_____________
`
`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`_____________
`
`SONY GROUP CORPORATION (JAPAN), SONY CORPORATION OF
`AMERICA, SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT LLC,
`SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC.,
`SONY ELECTRONICS INC., and
`VERANCE CORPORATION,
`
`v.
`
`MZ AUDIO SCIENCE, LLC,
`Patent Owner.
`_____________
`
`Case No. IPR2022-01544
`Patent No. 7,289,961
`_____________
`
`JOINT MOTION TO TERMINATE SONY PETITIONERS
`PURSUANT TO 35 U.S.C. § 317
`
`
`
`

`

`
`
`LISTING OF EXHIBITS
`
`1007
`1008
`
`1009
`1010
`1011
`
`Exhibit Description
`1001
`U.S. Patent No. 7,289,961 (“’961 Patent”)
`1002
`Prosecution History of U.S. Patent No. 7,289,961
`1003
`Declaration of Michael Scordilis, Ph.D.
`1004
`Curriculum Vitae of Michael Scordilis, Ph.D.
`1005
`U.S. Patent No. 6,272,176 (“Srinivasan”)
`1006
`Richard C. Cabot et al., “Detection of phase shifts in harmonically
`related tones,” in Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 24, no.
`7, pp. 568-571 (Sept. 1976) (“Cabot”) (from pages 8-11 of the Rachel J.
`Watters Declaration, Ex. 1009)
`PCT Publication WO 01/58063 (“Kudumakis”)
`John F. Tilki et al., “Encoding a hidden auxiliary channel onto a digital
`audio signal using psychoacoustic masking,” in Proceedings IEEE
`SOUTHEASTCON ’97. ‘Engineering the New Century,’ pp. 331-333
`(1997) (“Tilki”)
`Declaration of Rachel J. Watters Relating to Exhibit 1006
`U.S. Patent No. 4,546,779
`Christine I. Podilchuk et al., “Digital Watermarking: Algorithms and
`Applications,” in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, vol. 18, no. 4, pp.
`33-46 (July 2001) (“Podilchuk”) (from pages 6-21 of the Rachel J.
`Watters Declaration, Ex. 1034)
`Ingemar J. Cox et al., “Review of Watermarking and the Importance of
`Perceptual Modeling,” in Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 3016, pp. 92-99
`(June 1997) (“Cox-1997”)
`Mitchell D. Swanson et al., “Robust Audio Watermarking Using
`Perceptual Masking,” in Signal Processing, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 337-355
`(May 1998) (“Swanson”)
`U.S. Patent No. 3,845,391
`U.S. Patent No. 4,931,871
`U.S. Patent No. 3,004,104
`U.S. Patent No. 5,629,739
`U.S. Patent No. 5,745,604 (“’604 Patent”)
`U.S. Patent No. 5,579,124
`Ingemar J. Cox et al., “Secure Spread Spectrum Watermarking for
`Multimedia,” in NEC Research Institute Technical Report 95-10, pp. 1-
`33 (1995) (“Cox-1995”)
`
`1012
`
`1013
`
`1014
`1015
`1016
`1017
`1018
`1019
`1020
`
`- i -
`
`

`

`
`
`1021
`
`1022
`1023
`
`1024
`1025
`1026
`1027
`1028
`
`1029
`
`1030
`1031
`
`1032
`
`1033
`
`1034
`1035
`
`1036
`1037
`1038
`1039
`
`Chung-Ping Wu et al., “Robust and efficient digital audio watermarking
`using audio content analysis,” in Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 3971, pp.
`382-392 (2000) (“Wu”) (from pages 16-26 of the Rachel J. Watters
`Declaration, Ex. 1053)
`U.S. Patent No. 6,151,578
`Qiang Cheng et al., “Spread Spectrum Signaling for Speech
`Watermarking,” in Proceedings of 2001 IEEE International Conference
`on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, vol. 3, pp. 1337-1340
`(2001) (from pages 12-15 of the Rachel J. Watters Declaration, Ex.
`1054)
`U.S. Patent No. 7,133,534
`Declaration of Dr. Mary K. Bolin
`Declaration of Gordon MacPherson Relating to Ex. 1008
`U.S. Patent No. 6,996,521
`Jean-Claude Risset, “Exploration of Timbre by Analysis and Synthesis,”
`in The Psychology of Music, pp. 113-169 (2nd ed. 1999)
`Hideo Suzuki et al., “On the Perception of Phase Distortion,” in Journal
`of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 28, no. 9, pp. 570-574 (1980)
`Declaration of Ziaad Khan Relating to Ex. 1008
`Stanley P. Lipshitz, “On the Audibility of Midrange Phase Distortion in
`Audio Systems,” in Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 30,
`no. 9, pp. 580-595 (Sept. 1982)
`Wen-Nung Lie et al., “Robust and High-Quality Time-Domain Audio
`Watermarking Subject to Psychoacoustic Masking,” in 2001 IEEE
`International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, vol. 2, pp. 45-48
`(2001) (“Lie”)
`Kaliappan Gopalan et al., “Data Embedding in Audio Signals,” in 2001
`IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings, vol. 6, pp. 2713-2720 (2001)
`Declaration of Rachel J. Watters Relating to Exhibit 1011
`Alessandro Piva et al., “Managing Copyright in Open Networks,” in
`IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 18-26 (2002)
`Reserved- Not Used
`U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0028381
`U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0076245
`Ingemar Cox et al., “The First 50 Years of Electronic Watermarking,” in
`EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, pp. 126-132
`(2002)
`
`- ii -
`
`

`

`
`
`1040
`
`1041
`
`1042
`1043
`1044
`1045
`1046
`
`1047
`1048
`1049
`1050
`1051
`
`1052
`
`1053
`1054
`1055
`
`1056
`1057
`
`1058
`
`Changsheng Xu et al., “Content-Based Digital Watermarking for
`Compressed Audio,” in RIAO2000: Content-Based Multimedia
`Information Access, vol. 1, pp. 390-402 (2000)
`Jaap Haitsma et al., “Audio Watermarking for Monitoring and Copy
`Protection,” in ACM Multimedia Workshop, pp. 119-122 (2000)
`U.S. Patent No. 6,633,653 (“Hobson”)
`U.S. Patent No. 6,298,322
`U.S. Patent No. 5,450,490 (“Jensen”)
`U.S. Patent No. 6,175,627 (“Petrovic”)
`Ingemar Cox et al., “Some General Methods for Tampering with
`Watermarks,” in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications,
`vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 587-593 (May 1998)
`U.S. Patent No. 5,949,055
`U.S. Patent No. 6,101,602
`U.S. Patent No. 6,064,737
`U.S. Patent No. 6,141,441
`Frank Hartung, “Multimedia Watermarking Techniques,” in
`Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 87, no. 7, pp. 1079-1107 (July 1999)
`Neil Johnson, “Exploring Steganography: Seeing the Unseen,” in
`Computer, vol. 31, no. 26-34 (Feb. 1998)
`Declaration of Rachel J. Watters Relating to Exhibit 1021
`Declaration of Rachel J. Watters Relating to Exhibit 1023
`Ingemar J. Cox et al., “Secure Spread Spectrum Watermarking for
`Multimedia,” in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 6, no. 12,
`pp. 1673-1687 (Dec. 1997) (“Cox-SSSW”)
`Declaration of Gordon MacPherson Relating to Exhibit 1055
`Sotera Stipulation to be filed on September 23, 2022 in the U.S. District
`Court for the Central District of California
`Settlement Agreement
`
`- iii -
`
`

`

`
`
`I.
`
`INTRODUCTION
`Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 317(a), 37 C.F.R. § 42.74, and the Board’s
`
`authorization e-mail of May 4, 2023, Petitioners Sony Group Corporation (Japan),
`
`Sony Corporation of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC, Sony Pictures
`
`Entertainment Inc., and Sony Electronics Inc. (collectively “the Sony Petitioners”)
`
`and Patent Owner MZ Audio Science, LLC jointly request termination of the
`
`Sony Petitioners from IPR2022-01544 as a result of a settlement. Petitioner
`
`Verance Corporation (“Verance”) will remain as the sole Petitioner in the IPR.
`
`Verance does not oppose this request to terminate the Sony Petitioners.
`
`Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 317(b) and 37 C.F.R. § 42.74(b), a true copy of the
`
`written settlement agreement is being filed herewith as Exhibit 1058. This
`
`agreement resolves the dispute between Patent Owner and the Sony Petitioners
`
`concerning U.S. Patent No. 7,289,961 (“the ‘961 patent”). Patent Owner and the
`
`Sony Petitioners certify that there are no collateral agreements or understandings
`
`made in connection with, or in contemplation of, the termination of this IPR.
`
`Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 317(b) and 37 C.F.R. § 42.74(c), and the Board’s
`
`authorization e-mail, a Joint Request that the Settlement Agreement Be Treated as
`
`Business Confidential Information is being filed concurrently, and the copy of the
`
`agreement (Ex. 1058) is being filed as Board and Parties Only.
`
`- 1 -
`
`

`

`
`
`II.
`
`STATEMENT AND REASONS FOR RELIEF REQUESTED
`35 U.S.C. § 317(a) provides that “[a]n inter partes review instituted under
`
`this chapter shall be terminated with respect to any petitioner upon the joint request
`
`of the petitioner and the patent owner, unless the Office has decided the merits of
`
`the proceeding before the request for termination is filed.”
`
`In this IPR, a Decision to Institute Trial was entered on April 21, 2023.
`
`Patent Owner has not yet filed its Response to the Petition, Petitioners have not yet
`
`filed their Reply, and the Board has not decided the merits of the proceeding.
`
`Therefore, termination of the Sony Petitioners is appropriate upon this Joint
`
`Request. The proceeding itself will not be terminated, as Verance Corporation will
`
`continue as Petitioner.
`
`III. STATUS OF RELATED PROCEEDINGS
`A. MZ Audio Sciences, LLC v. Sony Group Corporation (Japan), et
`al., Case No. 1:21-cv-0166 (District of Delaware)
`This case was dismissed on February 8, 2022, pursuant to Patent Owner’s
`
`filing a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal.
`
`B. MZ Audio Sciences, LLC v. Sony Group Corporation (Japan), et
`al., Case No. 2:22-cv-00866 (Central District of California)
`Pursuant to a stipulation of the parties, this case was dismissed with
`
`prejudice on January 23, 2023. The settlement agreement filed concurrently as
`
`(business confidential) Exhibit 1058 resolves all disputes involving the ‘961 patent
`
`between Patent Owner and the Sony Petitioners.
`
`- 2 -
`
`

`

`
`
`This agreement is the only agreement and understanding between Patent
`
`Owner and the Sony Petitioners made in connection with, or in contemplation of,
`
`the termination of the Sony Petitioners from this IPR.
`
`IV. CONCLUSION
`The Sony Petitioners and Patent Owner respectfully request termination of
`
`the Sony Petitioners from IPR2022-01544, and request that the settlement
`
`agreement (Ex. 1058) be treated as business confidential information, kept separate
`
`from the files of the ‘961 patent and IPR2022-01544.
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`
`
`
`
`
`/Steven W. Hartsell/
`Sarah E. Spires, Reg. No: 61,501
`Steven W. Hartsell, Reg. No: 58,788
`SKIERMONT DERBY LLP
`1601 Elm Street, Suite 4400
`Dallas, TX 75201
`Telephone: (214) 978-6600
`Facsimile: (214) 978-6601
`
`Counsel for Patent Owner
`MZ Audio Sciences, LLC
`
`
`
`
`
`
`May 10, 2023
`
`
`
`
`
`/Michael N. Rader/
`Richard F. Giunta, Reg. No. 36,149
`Thomas A. Franklin, Reg. No. 63,456
`Michael N. Rader, Reg. No. 52,146
`WOLF, GREENFIELD & SACKS, P.C.
`600 Atlantic Avenue
`Boston, MA 02210
`Telephone: (617) 646-8000
`Facsimile: (617) 646-8646
`
`Counsel for Petitioners
`Sony Group Corporation (Japan),
`Sony Corporation of America,
`Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC,
`Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., and
`Sony Electronics Inc.
`
`- 3 -
`
`

`

`
`
`Date: May 10, 2023
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`/MacAulay Rush/
`MacAulay Rush
`Paralegal
`WOLF, GREENFIELD & SACKS, P.C.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE UNDER 37 C.F.R. § 42.6(e)(4)
`I certify that on May 10, 2023, I will cause a copy of the foregoing
`
`document, including any exhibits filed therewith, to be served via electronic mail,
`
`as previously consented to by Patent Owner and Petitioner Verance Corporation,
`
`upon the following:
`
`MZAudioSciences_SDTeam@skiermontderby.com
`tehranchi-ptab@perkinscoie.com
`millikan-ptab@perkinscoie.com
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`