IP Law Daily, PATENT—W.D. Wash.: Valve video games did not infringe patent on ‘character enabled network sites’, (Nov 8, 2021)

By Kevin M. Finson, J.D.

Two video games did not infringe a patent on network systems because they operated just the same without being connected to a network.

The video game producer Valve was entitled to summary judgment of non-infringement in a patent infringement suit over network technology, the U.S. District Court in Seattle has held. Valve’s products did not make use of the “character-enabled network site” as required by the patent’s claims. Valve’s invalidity counterclaim was rendered hypothetical by the judgment on infringement (Treehouse Avatar LLC v. Valve Corp., November 4, 2021, Jones, R.).

Treehouse Avatar, LLC (Treehouse) was the owner of U.S. Patent No. 8,180,858 (the ’858 patent) which was directed to a method for “presenting data over an information network based on choices made by the users of the network and collecting data related to the choices made by the users.” Treehouse filed suit alleging infringement against Valve Corporation (Valve) based on two of Valve’s video game products: Defense of the Ancients 2 and Team Fortress 2. Valve counterclaimed for declaratory judgment of non-infringement and invalidity of the ’858 patent, and moved for summary judgment.

Infringement. The court had previously stricken portions of Treehouse’s expert’s report asserting that the accused products used “character-enabled network sites” because Treehouse’s expert did not use the definition of “character-enabled network site” which had been determined by claim construction in a related inter partes review proceeding before the USPTO. Absent any admissible evidence from Treehouse that the accused products operated such sites, which were required for each claim term under the ’858 patent, the court turned to Valve’s expert, who demonstrated that the products did not use such network sites because they could run in all relevant ways identically with or without a connection to any network. The court found that Valve did not infringe because its products did not make use of the “character-enabled network site” as required by the claims.

Validity. The court declined to rule on the invalidity question because, absent a product actually infringing the patent, such a question was merely hypothetical.

The court granted Valve’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement and for a declaration that its products did not infringe the ’858 patent, and dismissed the invalidity counterclaim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The Case is No. 2:17-cv-01860-RAJ.

Attorneys: Lawrence D. Graham (Lowe Graham Jones PLLC) for Treehouse Avatar LLC. Gavin William Skok (Fox Rothschild LLP) and Joshua C. Harrison (Barcelo Harrison & Walker LLP) for Valve Corp.

Companies: Treehouse Avatar LLC; Valve Corp.

Cases: Patent WashingtonNews GCNNews