Ars reports that Teleflex is beginning to have a real impact on the outcome of software patent litigation:
Friskit filed a patent infringement lawsuit against RealNetworks in 2003 that sought over $70 million in damages. In a ruling issued last week, Judge William W. Schwarzer granted Realnetworks’ motion for summary judgment, citing “Real’s clear and convincing evidence of obviousness.”
Judge Schwarzer cited the Supreme Court’s decision on KSR v. Teleflex in his opinion. “Two principles from the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc. guide the analysis of whether sufficient difference exists between the prior art and Friskit’s claims to render the patents nonobvious,” he wrote. The first of those is patents that rearrange old elements to create a new—but obvious—combination. The second comes from situations where a person of “ordinary skill” pursues known options, and the result is the product of “ordinary skill and common sense.”
“All of the individual features of Friskit’s patents which allow a user to easily search for and listen to streaming media existed in the prior art,” noted the judge, who went on to cite a number of media player
Good for Judge Schwarzer. This bodes well for Vonage.
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