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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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`GOOGLE LLC,
`Petitioner,
`
`v.
`
`BLACKBERRY LTD.,
`Patent Owner.
`__________
`
`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
`(Patent 8,489,868 B2)
`__________
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`Record of Oral Hearing
`Held: September 17, 2018
`__________
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`
`
`Before SALLY C. MEDLEY, ROBERT J. WEINSCHENK, and
`AARON W. MOORE, Administrative Patent Judges.
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
`(Patent 8,489,868 B2)
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`APPEARANCES:
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`ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONER:
`
`
`PHILLIP W. CITROEN, ESQ.
`NAVEEN MODI, ESQ.
`JOSEPH E. PALYS, ESQ.
`Paul Hastings LLP
`875 15th Street, NW
`Washington, DC 20005
`202-551-1991 (Mr. Citroen)
`phillipcitroen@paulhastings.com
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`
`
`ON BEHALF OF THE PATENT OWNER:
`
`
`SAMUEL A. DILLON, ESQ.
`CHING-LEE FUKUDA, ESQ.
`SHARON LEE, ESQ.
`Sidley Austin, LLP
`1501 K Street, NW
`Washington, DC 20005
`202-736-8298 (Mr. Dillon)
`samuel.dillon@sidley.com
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`
`
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`The above-entitled matter came on for hearing on Monday,
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`September 17, 2018, commencing at 1:00 p.m. at the U.S. Patent and
`Trademark Office, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia.
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
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`P R O C E E D I N G S
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`JUDGE MOORE: Good afternoon. We're here now for
`argument in our case number IPR2017-1619 and 2017-1620. It's
`entitled Google LLC versus Blackberry LTD, and it concerns United
`States Patent Number 8489868. Would counsel for the parties please
`introduce yourselves, starting with the Petitioner.
`MR. CITROEN: Good afternoon, your Honor. My name is
`Phillip Citroen, appearing on behalf of the Petitioner. Here with me
`today is Joe Palys and Naveen Modi.
`MR. DILLON: On behalf of the Patent Owner, my name is
`Sam Dillon. With me is Sharon Lee and also our lead counsel Ching-
`Lee Fukuda.
`JUDGE MOORE: Thank you, welcome to the Board. Per our
`hearing order, each side will have 90 minutes to argue. The Petitioner
`will argue first and may reserve rebuttal time. The Patent Owner may
`not reserve rebuttal time. I will remind the parties that the Petitioner
`bears the burden of proving any proposition of unpatentability by a
`preponderance of the evidence.
`I will also remind the parties that this hearing is open to the
`public, and a full transcript of it will become part of the record.
`Please remember to also mention the numbers of the slides as you
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`refer to them so it's reflected clearly in the record. And with that, I'll
`invite Petitioner to begin.
`MR. CITROEN: Good afternoon, your Honor. May it please
`the Board, my name is Phillip Citroen. As I mentioned, I am here on
`behalf of the Petitioner. Before I go on, I will reserve about 30
`minutes for rebuttal. Also, I will be referring to Petitioner's
`demonstratives. I do have hard copies, if anyone would like a copy,
`I'm happy to bring it up.
`MR. DILLON: We're fine, no thank you.
`MR. CITROEN: Okay. So with that, if we can go to slide 2
`please. So for the Board's convenience, we've listed the grounds that
`have been instituted in the 1619 proceeding. If we can go to slide 3,
`we've also presented here the grounds that were instituted for the 1620
`proceeding.
`In our view, based on the evidence that was relied on for
`purposes of instituting these two proceedings, as well as the additional
`evidence that is now in the record further supporting Petitioner's
`positions, we believe that the Board should enter a final written
`decision in these proceedings canceling the claims at issue based on
`these grounds. My goal today is to explain why.
`So we can go to the next slide 4, please. So here we have
`Independent Claim 1. There's another Independent Claim as well, 76.
`For purposes of today and these proceedings, it's essentially identical.
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`The main difference is it's directed to a method instead of a mobile
`device.
`The main point that I want to make here is that these claims,
`while relatively long, describe a simple process which is allowing an
`application to access a Sensitive API to which access is restricted
`based on a valid digital signature.
`It's also important to note that the concepts in this claim
`related to generating and validating a digital signature and using a
`public-private key pair was conventional in the art for decades before
`the 868 patent was issued. So what's left then in these claims is the
`application of these fundamental concepts in the context of restricting
`access to APIs on mobile devices. But as the record shows, this was
`not a new concept at the time.
`So the Patent Owner, in response, has presented a shotgun
`approach to these proceedings raising numerous arguments. At the
`end of the day they all fail, and there's a few reasons I want to
`highlight up front for that.
`First of all, a major flaw in Patent Owner's arguments,
`especially with respect to the 1620 proceeding, is that they ignore
`what was so well known in the art at the time of the alleged invention.
`For example, how conventional digital signatures worked, how private
`keys worked.
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`Another problem with many of Patent Owner's arguments is
`that they ignore the full disclosure of the prior art references. And
`finally, another issue is that they raise claim construction arguments
`that are unsubstantiated. They're not supported by the record.
`So I'd like to focus on a few of these issues, a few of these
`arguments that the Patent Owner has raised. And I think it may be
`helpful given there are a lot of slides that we submitted, to present a
`road map for the Board to see what the issues are that we'd like to
`address today. So if you could actually jump to slide 6, please.
` So here are three claim construction issues that have been
`raised. Today I plan to just focus on the first two, and I will just note
`up front that these two claim construction issues are really just
`specific to the 1619 proceeding. I'll just note one typo here, these
`should be IPR 2017.
`If we can go to slide 26. Here we've presented the issues that
`were raised by the Patent Owner with respect to the 1619 proceeding,
`and this involves the Garst reference. So for this particular
`proceeding, I'm going to focus on the first two limitations of the
`Independent Claims and then Claim 112, one of the Dependent
`Claims.
`And if we can go to slide 47, here we have the issues for the
`1620 proceeding which involves the Lin reference. And for this one, I
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`plan to also focus on the first three limitations that are recited there,
`which are part of the Independent Claims.
`And then for the Dependent Claims, there's a lot of issues that
`have been raised. I'm just going to focus on Claims 13 and 88, and
`Claim 98.
`Of course, if there's anything else that the Board wants me to
`address -- and actually before I go on -- I'm mostly going to address
`the public availability issue that was raised by the panel for the Gong
`reference. So with that, if there's any other issues that your Honors
`would like me to address, please let me know. I'm happy to answer
`any questions with respect to any additional issues I don't address on
`my opening presentation.
`So with that, let's go to slide 7, please. So as I mentioned, the
`first issue I'd like to address is some claim construction points, the
`first two in particular. Both of these only relate to the 1619
`proceeding and were raised to try to get around the Garst reference.
`So first for this proceeding, the signed software application
`term. We can go to slide 8. The Patent Owner argues that this has a
`very narrow meaning. You can see they essentially argue that the
`signature is of the software application. One thing I want to point out
`though is that the construction that's actually proposed here doesn't
`clearly express what the Patent Owner is actually arguing.
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`What they're arguing is that the signature needs to be created
`using the software application source code. That's what's being
`argued here. What we don't know is whether Patent Owner's
`construction requires all of the source code to be used to generate the
`digital signature, whether a portion of the source code can be used to
`generate the digital signature, and if it's the latter, what we don't know
`is what portion needs to be used. Does it matter and how much?
`Does it matter if it's one line of source code? Does it need to
`be a certain percentage of source code? These are issues that are not
`expressed in this construction. That's unclear.
`JUDGE MOORE: Do we have to know that though? Is there
`a reason why we have to know that?
`MR. CITROEN: Well I think it's important when we get to
`Garst. You'll see that they take to the position that what we point to in
`Garst, which is actually a piece of the source code, they say isn't
`enough to meet this limitation. So the unclear construction that they
`provide is important because it needs to be -- expressly say to what
`this construction means in order to figure out whether the prior art
`reference actually meets their construction.
`So this is part of the problem we have with Patent Owner's
`construction is just this unclear construction that's provided. But as I
`mentioned, what I think we'll hear today is whatever this construction
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`means, it at least excludes what they say in Garst is not application
`and source code. It's not sufficient to meet this construction.
`Beyond these issues of clarity, Patent Owner's construction is
`also wrong because it's inconsistent with the claims and the
`specification of the 868 patent.
`So if we can go to slide 9 and actually look at the claim
`language here. So there's a lot of words highlighted, but if I can direct
`your attention to the first wherein clause. It says, wherein a signed
`software application includes a digital signature generated using a
`private-public key pair.
`So something that I think's important to note here is that when
`you talk about signing something, that is referring to a process of
`creating a digital signature, and that's actually recited here. A digital
`signature generated using a private key of a private key-public key
`pair, significantly what you don't see here is any indication of what
`type of information is actually used to generate the digital signature.
`It doesn't state what the key is actually applied to. And it certainly
`doesn't state that you have to apply the key to source code of the
`software application.
`So based on the claim language itself, information other than
`source code may be used to generate the digital signature of the signed
`software application, which makes sense given a software application
`can include information other than source code.
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`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: Does this spec give us any
`examples where the signature isn't generated from the source code?
`MR. CITROEN: I think it does, your Honor. Actually, let's
`jump to, I think it's the next slide, slide 10. I think the understanding
`that we have of the claim language is consistent with this particular
`paragraph which is in the specification of column 4, line 36 to 55.
`Here it gives me an example in this portion of signing the
`software application code. But the important point is that it's
`expressly stated that this is only an example. And the highlighted
`portion -- let me just walk through this a little bit. I don't want to get
`too much into the weeds, but I think it's helpful to go through and see
`what this paragraph is actually explaining.
`So if you look at the top portion that is highlighted there,
`you'll see that it's prescribing what a signed software application is. It
`actually uses the language that's in the claims. It explains that it has a
`digital signature. But what this highlighted portion doesn't tell you is
`what is actually being signed. What's being used to generate the
`digital signature? That's not specified in the highlighted portion at the
`top. That is explained -- what's used to generate the digital signature,
`is explained in the rest of the paragraph.
`So if you look at the portion following the top highlighted
`section, you'll see that it explains that you -- to create the digital
`signature, you sign information using private key 18. And twice in
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`this section it states that the software application is generated using
`the source code twice as an example only. The first time it's not
`highlighted, it's toward the middle, it says for example. According to
`one signature scheme, it goes on to explain that you can sign the
`application itself.
`The next part is a highlighted section at the bottom, and I think
`this is probably more helpful for the Board. It explains that in some
`signature schemes, a private signature key is used to encrypt a hash of
`information to be signed. And that's the important part, and
`information to be signed. And then it gives again, as an example only,
`such as Software Application Y14.
`JUDGE MOORE: Doesn't the key have to be tied to the
`software? Doesn't the signature have to be tied to the application?
`MR. CITROEN: Yes and it could be --
`JUDGE MOORE: You're signing the application, right. The
`signature is there to substantiate that is in fact the application from the
`source's signature.
`MR. CITROEN: Understood, and I think that's right. I think
`there has to be an association with the application. But the question
`is, what information actually needs to be used to generate that digital
`signature? The argument that the Patent Owner is taking is that the
`claims only go to this example here, which is signing the source code.
`But there's other information tied to an application as well that may
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`not be the source code, but you could also use to generate a digital
`signature. There's always --
`JUDGE MOORE: Is that described somewhere in this
`specification?
`MR. CITROEN: No, I don't believe so. I'd have to take a
`look to be sure. But that's something that's generally known in the art.
`I think there's actually -- if I can point you to slide 32 really quickly.
`You can see, and this is just another reference in the prior art,
`describing Java which a programming language.
`You can see the JAR file is actually packaging all of the
`portions of the software application, including class files which is the
`source code, images, sounds, and other data. This is one reference
`that gives some explanation what a software application is, in fact. It's
`not just code itself. You have other pieces that can be part of the
`software application.
`So with that, at least open the possibility, particularly given
`the claim language doesn't state what is actually being used to
`generate the digital signature. And the fact that the specification
`broadly states that you can generate a digital signature for "the signed
`software application using information." It only gives source code as
`an example.
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`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: But am I correct that that's the only
`example given in the spec is using the source code to generate the
`signature?
`MR. CITROEN: Well, I'd say it's broader than that because it
`says you can sign information. If you look, and I'm sure Patent
`Owner will want to make this point today, the specific examples it
`gives later are referring to the source code of the application. But
`when it's actually defining what a signed software application is
`before doing that, it uses information as the key to explain what is
`actually being used to generate the digital signature here. So I think
`it's important to remember that the claim language is broad here.
`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: So the information is broader than
`source code?
`MR. CITROEN: Absolutely.
`JUDGE MOORE: But it can't be any information, right? It
`has to be information that's connected to the application somehow.
`MR. CITROEN: Absolutely. That's right, your Honor. I
`think it does -- there has to be -- that's never been our position. We
`don't think, you know, you can just throw any digital signature on and
`that would be sufficient. There does have to be an association with
`the application.
`And I think, you know, one thing -- I'll get to this later -- but
`one thing I will point out now is that at the end of the day, it doesn't
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`really matter whether this construction is adopted, because we think
`it's disclosed by both Garst by itself, and the combination of Garst and
`Gong reference. And there's support in the petition, and we have
`expert testimony that supports that position as well.
`But from just a claim construction standpoint, we think the
`proper construction is broader that what the Patent Owner is
`proposing here. So with that, can we go to slide 15 please, Joe?
`The next claim construction issue I want to discuss here is the
`Sensitive API/Non-Sensitive API. We can actually go to 14, slide 14
`please. And here you have the constructions proposed by the parties,
`and also the constructions adopted by the Board. And you can see
`here what Patent Owner argues with respect to these terms, except
`they must be narrowly construed to refer to APIs that do or do not
`implicate a security concern.
`This is almost the same construction that they proposed with
`their preliminary response. That the focus there being as well whether
`or not the API implicates a security concern. In the institution
`decisions, the Board rejected that argument, instead adopting a
`construction that is more aligned with the claim language and a
`specification of the 868 patent.
`And as you can see from Petitioner's proposed constructions
`here, we think the Board got it right in the institution's decisions, and
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`believe that the Board should maintain the constructions that it
`adopted in its institution decision.
`So I think it's helpful to look at the claim language of slide 15
`quickly. So first, you can see the highlighted portion on the left side
`for Claim 1 where at least one API comprises a Sensitive API to its
`access is restricted. There is no mention of security whatsoever in the
`highlighted portion or anywhere else in this claim.
`Instead, what the claims are describing here is a concept
`related to access restrictions. If it's a Sensitive API, you restrict
`access to it. If it's a Non-Sensitive API, there are no access
`restrictions. This is what the claims are directed to. And it's also
`consistent with the preamble of Claim 1, which isn't highlighted, but
`you can see that the preamble states that the, cause the mobile device
`to inform operations for controlling access to an application platform
`of the mobile device. Again, emphasizing that the point here, with
`respect to these limitations, is whether or not you're getting access to
`an API.
`If we can go to slide 16. And this understanding of these
`terms is supported by what the other claims describe, and is also what
`the specification describes, and here is an example. Claim 117, you
`actually had a digital signature that is not successfully verified. Yet,
`in addition to denying access to a Sensitive API, you're allowing
`access to a Non-Sensitive API.
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`If we go to the next slide, the specification uses these terms in
`the same way. So jumping to the second highlighted portion here, to
`protect against unauthorized access to the Sensitive APIs. So again, I
`know this is only one excerpt, but the specification consistently states
`that with Sensitive APIs, you're restricting access. There's not a
`similar description for Non-Sensitive APIs. You do not restrict access
`to specific Non-Sensitive APIs as we do for Sensitive APIs.
`So what types of APIs then may be classified as sensitive? I
`think it's very helpful to point out that the top portion here of this
`paragraph explains that any API may be classified as sensitive. Any
`API would certainly include APIs that do not implicate security
`concerns. And this rationale is consistent with the objectives that are
`actually specified in the 868 patent.
`If you go to the next slide, Joe. This is slide 18. On the left
`side you can see the objectives in column 1, line 36 to 50, of the 868
`patent. Here you can see that the objectives for a co-signing scheme
`is not only to protect against destructive code, such as Trojan horses,
`but also to ensure that an application will properly interact with native
`applications and resources. And there's also a few objectives listed
`here. We're just generally controlling the types of software
`applications that are put onto devices.
`We can go to slide 19, please. There's another problem with
`Patent Owner's construction as well, and that's highlighted by some of
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`the testimony of Patent Owner's expert, Dr. Ligler. First, the
`specification does not provide any guidance or a standard for a person
`who is skilled in the art to understand the scope of this term under
`Patent Owner's construction.
`In fact the phrase "security concern" doesn't appear anywhere
`in the specification of the 868 patent, and the term "security" isn't
`described anywhere in the specification with respect to APIs. It's just
`not there.
`Instead, and you can see this in slide 19, according to the
`Patent Owner's expert, the decision whether to classify an API as
`sensitive is less up to the subjective judgment of the API author, or
`some other entity.
`If we can go to slide 20. And this is all coming from Exhibit
`1046. So slide 20 is another portion of the transcript for Dr. Ligler at
`page 130, line 40 and 13. Here, Dr. Ligler actually states that if you
`have two authors of an API, they may actually disagree whether that
`API implicates a security concern or not. In this situation, he
`proposed that maybe a third party could come in and indicate whether
`or not they believe that the API implicates a security concern.
`So, because there's no objective way to actually determine
`whether an API implicates a security concern, Patent Owner's
`construction is not only unsupported by the claims and the
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
`(Patent 8,489,868 B2)
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`specification, but also raises indefinite in these questions with respect
`to these terms.
`So at the end of the day, at most what the specification is
`describing is a system for restricting access for APIs, and it's up to the
`API author to decide which APIs that may be. But it's not limited to
`APIs that implicate a security concern.
`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: I assume you'll get to this, but does
`this issue matter? Does the prior art teach this limitation even under
`Patent Owner's construction?
`MR. CITROEN: We believe it does. In our petition, we have
`an obvious position that states, and I will get to this, that even if the
`construction is adopted, that the combination of Garst and Gong
`would disclose this limitation. You would have at least one of the
`APIs on the mobile device be a Sensitive API for security purposes,
`and I will get to that.
`So if we can go to slide 27, please. So I'm now jumping to the
`substantive issues with respect to the prior art. In particular, I'm going
`to the 1619 proceeding, and this is related to the Garst reference as the
`primary reference, and I want to talk about the "Signed Software
`Application" term first.
`As a reminder, we just talked about this, but Patent Owner
`proposes a specific construction for this term, which is essentially
`requiring signing the application source code. They don't have an R-
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
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`unit with respect to the prior art if their construction is not adopted.
`So there's really no dispute if this construction is adopted, but the
`prior art discloses it.
`But even if Patent Owner's construction is adopted, Petitioner
`has shown that Garst, both alone and in combination with Gong, does
`disclose a signed software application.
`So if we can go to slide 28, I'd like to start with just Garst
`alone. I won't spend too much time because I think it's pretty clear
`from both the figure and some of the excerpts here. You can see that
`Garst explicitly or clearly explains that the license agreement string
`904 and the license key string 902 is actually part of the application
`program's source code, and you can see that clearly in Figure 9.
`You have application program 900, and then within the cost
`and declaration section of the application program, you have both
`string 902 and 904. And just as a quick reminder, key string 902, that
`is the digital signature, and that is generated using the agreement
`string 904.
`JUDGE MOORE: Is it the Patent Owner's position that it's
`not the application that's signed though, it's the license agreement
`string that's signed?
`MR. CITROEN: I think that is their position, but the problem
`with that position is Garst explicitly explains that the license
`agreement string is actually part of the application program. He
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
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`actually inserts it into the program, and the highlighted portions
`explain that. The first portion of the top right. It explains, excuse me,
`the top right. So this is Garst, column 9, 17 to 21. It explains the
`string 902 and license agreement string 904, which is the agreement
`string, is inserted into the application program's source code.
`Then if you go down to the bottom portion, which is also from
`Garst, column 9, line 48 to 58, it states that the two strings are
`compiled into the executable form of the application program. And
`for Java it even explains it would be the byte code. And it states that
`this binds the license key string and the license agreement string into
`the executable code of the application program. So the argument that
`it's not part of the code itself is directly in conflict with what Garst
`itself explains.
`JUDGE MOORE: Well it's in the code but the key is
`generated from the string as opposed to, for example, generated from
`the application as a whole?
`MR. CITROEN: That is correct. So you, in Garst, you do not
`take all of the source code. Again, and this is part of the problem we
`have with the construction, it's unclear whether you have to sign all of
`the source code. If that's required, what Garst is explaining is that you
`sign the agreement string portion of the source code. That's what
`Garst explains.
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
`(Patent 8,489,868 B2)
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`If the argument is that the agreement string is something that
`you're signing and inserting into the code, even though it explicitly
`states that it becomes part of the code, then at that point again you're
`questioning well, what does the construction mean then? So does it
`matter when you then start signing pieces? Does it matter when the
`code that's being signed is inserted into the complete program?
`This just shows again that it's unclear what the construction is
`and where the line is between signing the code and not signing the
`code.
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`JUDGE MOORE: So the questions seems to be, what does it
`mean to be signed, right? Because, I mean here it seems to me like
`they're arguing that the signing is essentially generating this unique
`key corresponding to something. So they're signing the license
`agreement string, and then they just happen to put that stuff in the
`application.
`So what does it mean to be signed, right? Is it a signed
`application if you have a signature that validates something else that is
`just put in there, or does it have to be of the application itself?
`MR. CITROEN: I think that is the question, and I think the
`issue again is the construction. What the question is, and maybe to
`restate slightly what you said, is what information needs to be used to
`create the digital signature for the signed software application? And if
`you go down that road and start questioning, okay, is it something
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`Case IPR2017-01620
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`that's already in the code or not? Would that then exclude a situation
`where you had different pieces of code that are separately signed and
`then combined into one final source code package? I don't know.
`Based on the construction itself, how broad it is, and the lack
`of clarity, how vague it is, this is sufficient. Garst explicitly states that
`it's part of the executable form. It is the final program that's actually
`run on the device. That's the program. That's the source code. And
`when the source code runs, it actually uses the strings to check
`whether the application as a whole can access the API.
`JUDGE MOORE: I think the key validates the license
`agreement text, right, not the application?
`MR. CITROEN: That's correct. But again the question is, is
`it verifying a portion of the source code? The answer is yes, because
`the agreement string in the software that you're receiving is actually
`part of the cost and declaration of the source code application. It is
`part of the code.
`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: I just want to make sure I'm
`following exactly here. So we have plain language that says the
`signed software application includes a digital signature. That here is
`the license key string.
`MR. CITROEN: The digital signature is the licensed key
`string, that's correct.
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`Case IPR2017-01619
`Case IPR2017-01620
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`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: And it's generated using a private
`key, and the private key is the license agreement string?
`MR. CITROEN: No. The private key is the API vendor's
`private key which is not, I believe it's not showing in Figure 9 here.
`That's shown elsewhere.
`JUDGE WEINSCHENK: Okay.
`MR. CITROEN: The license agreement string is the text that
`becomes part of the software program, part of the source code. That
`portion of the source code is used to create the key string which is the
`digital signature.
`So even if Garst alone doesn't disclose this limitation, our
`petition lays out an obviousness combination that's based on Garst and
`Gong. So I'd like to mo