News & Analysis
Noroozi PC Secures Full Affirmance At Federal Circuit For Conversant
With respect to patent eligibility, the Federal Circuit held that the two patents in suit, which are directed to visionary improvements in graphical user interfaces for small screen computing devices, are subject matter eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101—setting an important precedent for GUI patents and Section 101 law more generally.
The appellate court also held that the district court's construction of a key limitation, "unlaunched state," was not erroneous, and embraced arguments and evidence put forth by Noroozi PC demonstrating that LG's alternative construction would exclude preferred embodiments from the scope of all claims, and would directly clash with the teachings of the specifications.
The court also agreed with Conversant and the district court that substantial evidence supported the jury's infringement verdict with respect to the "reached directly" limitation, particularly in light of testimony from LG's own infringement expert as well as its user manuals, which contradicted LG's positions.
The Federal Circuit further concluded that the jury was entitled to reject LG's anticipation theory in light of cross-examination testimony from LG's expert, which supported a finding that the prior art did not in fact teach the "limited list" limitation of the claims.
Conversant was represented on appeal by Noroozi PC and Russ, August, and Kabat, and at trial by Hueston Hennigan. LG was represented on appeal by Sidley Austin, and at trial by Greenberg Traurig.
