IP Law Daily, PATENT—D. Del.: Summary judgment of non-infringement granted in video game hardware dispute, (Mar 26, 2024)

By Kevin M. Finson

Expert testimony concerning functional equivalency had been excluded and there was no other evidence to support the functional equivalency of a component of the claimed invention and the accused products.

A patentee of computer communication equipment failed to create a genuine question of material fact as to infringement under the “function-way-result” test, the U.S. District Court in Wilmington has held. The only evidence it brought forward on that point had been excluded in a prior Daubert hearing, (Genuine Enabling Technology, LLC v. Sony Corporation, et al., March 25, 2024, Goldberg, M.).

Genuine Enabling Technology, LLC (Genuine) was the owner of U.S. Patent No. 6,219,730 (the ’730 patent), which claimed “an apparatus for sending multiple streams of information to a computer over a single communication link.” Genuine brought suit for infringement against Sony Corporation and Sony Interactive Entertainment, LLC (collectively, Sony), alleging that Sony’s video game consoles and controllers infringed the ’730 patent by sending multiple streams of information such as button presses, motion sensor data, and voice from the controllers to the consoles over a single wireless communication link. Sony moved for summary judgment of non-infringement.

Functional equivalency. The court had previously excluded, after a Daubert hearing, Genuine’s expert’s report on the issue of whether a Bluetooth module in the accused products performed synchronization of data in substantially the same way as a part of the asserted patent.

Sony argued that without expert testimony to support a finding of functional equivalency under the “function-way-result test” Genuine could not create a genuine question of material fact of infringement. The court agreed, finding that although the “way” the two structures operated was a factual question, Genuine still bore the burden of providing some evidence from which a reasonable jury could find in its favor. There was no such evidence in the record after the exclusion of Genuine’s expert.

The court granted summary judgment of non-infringement in favor of Sony.

The Case is No. 1:17-cv-00135-MSG.

Attorneys: Ronald P. Golden, III (Bayard, P.A.) for Genuine Enabling Technology LLC. Cortlan S. Hitch (Morris James LLP) for Sony Corp.

Companies: Genuine Enabling Technology LLC; Sony Corp.

Cases: Patent DelawareNews