Fresh From the Bench: Latest Federal Circuit Court Cases

CASE OF THE WEEK

CenTrak, Inc. v. Sonitor Technologies, Inc., Appeal No. 2017-2510 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 14, 2019)

In this appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded an order granting Sonitor’s motions for summary judgment of non-infringement and invalidity, based on lack of written description, of U.S. Patent No. 8,604,909 (“the ’909 patent”).

The ’909 patent relates to systems for real-time location, which allow users to locate and identify portable devices in a facility, such as a hospital, by using a base station that communicates with the portable devices.  While the claims at issue require “ultrasonic” components for the communication, the majority of the specification—in fact, all but two sentences—discusses infrared or radio frequency components.

In granting Sonitor’s motion for summary judgment of invalidity, the district court focused on those two sentences, finding that while the specification “contemplated” ultrasound, it was not sufficient to meet the written description requirement.  The Federal Circuit disagreed, finding that genuine issues of material fact remain as to whether the specification adequately disclosed the implementation details for how a portable device can communicate with the corresponding base station using ultrasonic technology.

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Written by: Scott D. Eads and Nika Aldrich, Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt

Contributor: Erin Forbes