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District Court Denies Motion for Leave to File Summary Judgment as Premature Prior to Claim Constructio

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Rec Software USA, Inc. (“Rec”) filed a patent infringement action against HTC America, Inc. (“HTC”). HTC requested leave to file a motion for summary judgment based on 35 U.S.C. §101. The request for leave to file the summary judgment motion occurred prior to claim construction proceedings.

HTC argued that the summary judgment motion could potentially dispose of the entire case in support of its request for leave to file an early motion for summary judgment. Rec opposed HTC’s request by arguing that claim construction was necessary to understand the nature of the asserted claims.

In analyzing the request for leave to file the early summary judgment motion, the district court agreed with Rec that claim construction would be necessary to evaluate the §101 issue. “While Defendants are correct that claim construction is not always required to conduct a §101 analysis, the Court finds claim construction is necessary in this case to understand both the nature of the technology at issue and the nature of the asserted claims. Any motion for summary judgment under §101 prior to claim construction would be premature.”

Accordingly, the district court denied the request to file an early motion for summary judgment under 35 U.S.C. §101.

Rec Software USA, Inc. v. HTC America, Inc., Case No. C14-1025 MJP (W.D. Wash. March 26, 2015)

The authors of www.PatentLawyerBlog.com are patent trial lawyers at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP. For more information about this case, contact Stan Gibson at 310.201.3548 or SGibson@jmbm.com.