By Jason Rantanen
Aristocrat Technologies Australia PTY Limited v. International Game Technology (Fed. Cir. 2012)
Download 10-1426.Opinion.3-11-2013.1
Panel: O'Malley (author), Bryson and Linn
Aristocrat and IGT compete in the casino gaming machine industry; Aristocrat was the patent holder here. After construing the claims, the district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement under Muniauction v. Thomson, 532 F.3d 1318 (Fed. Cir. 2008), because no single actor performed all of the claimed steps. On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's claim construction and summary judgment of no direct infringement but remanded for further proceedings on inducement of infringement in light of its intervening en banc decision in Akamai Technologies, Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc., 692 F.3d 1301 (Fed. Cir. 2012). This is the second case this month to address the issue of joint/divided infringement.
The patents-in-suit relate to a gaming system in which an additional prize is awarded to a player through a secondary feature game appearing after the main game is completed. Most of the claim limitations relate to steps that would performed by the casino itself, such as "initiating a first main game at said particular gaming machine" and "awarding said one progressive prize from said plurality of progressive prizes that has been won."
One limitation, however, requires "making a wager at a particular gaming machine in the network of gaming machines." The district court interpreted this limitation to mean "betting, which is an act performed by the player." Aristocrat challenged this construction on appeal, contending that "making a wager" is merely "carrying out a bet" (and thus could be performed by the same actor that carried out the other steps). The Federal Circuit disagreed, noting the overwhelming support for the district court's construction. It rejected Aristocrat's other claim construction challenge based on similarly overwhelming amounts of contrary evidence. This opinion is a great example of what happens when a party tries to twist the meaning of a claim term far beyond what is reasonable or supportable.
Divided infringement (direct): Turning to the divided infringement problem the construed claims raised, the Federal Circuit began by affirming summary judgment of no direct infringement. The court first noted that Akamai expressly did not revisit the law of divided infringement as it applies to 271(a); to be liable for direct infringement of a method claim, a party must perform "all the steps of the claimed method, either personally or through another acting under his direction or control." Slip op. at 25, quoting Akamai. Under Muniauction, “the control or direction standard is satisfied in situations where the law would traditionally hold the accused direct infringer vicariously liable for the acts committed by another party that are required to complete performance of a claimed method.” Here, no single actor performed all the claimed steps and the Federal Circuit declined to conclude that the alleged conduct satisfied the "direction or control requirement. In doing so, it expressly rejected Aristocrat's argument that this requirement was satisfied due to the player's actions being "the 'natural, ordinary, and reasonable consequences of' IGT's conduct." Slip op. at 27.
Divided infringement (indirect): Applying Akamai, the Federal Circuit vacated the district court's summary judgment with regard to indirect infringement, an issue that neither the parties nor the district court expended significant time on. The Federal Circuit's opinion provides no substantive discussion on this issue but does highlight two key parts of Akamai that nicely sum it up:
As we stated in Akamai, “[r]equiring proof that there has been direct infringement as a predicate for induced infringement is not the same as requiring proof that a single party would be liable as a direct infringer.” Akamai, 692 F.3d at 1308-09 (emphasis in original). Thus, “[a] party who knowingly induces others to engage in acts that collectively practice the steps of the patented method—and those others perform those acts—has had precisely the same impact on the patentee as a party who induces the same infringement by a single direct infringer; there is no reason, either in the text of the statute or in the policy underlying it, to treat the two inducers differently.” Id. at 1309.
Slip op. at 28. Here, Aristocrat deserved the opportunity to argue its indirect infringement theory with the benefit of the Federal Circuit's clarification regarding inducement.
Update on petitions for certiorari in Akamai and Epic v. McKesson: As noted by Dennis earlier this month, petitions for certiorari were filed in both Akamai and Epic v. McKesson. However, Epic and McKesson recently settled and Epic has withdrawn its cert petition. (Thanks to Tim Holbrook for pointing this out). Clarification: Both Limelight's petition and Akamai's conditional cross-petition remain pending.
