“Content Dependent Data Decompression” and “Content Independent Data Decompression” Deemed Indefinite and Lacking Written Description

The court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment of invalidity of two of plaintiff's data compression patents for indefiniteness and lack of written description because the claims were in conflict with the process described in the specification. "The terms 'content dependent data decompression' and 'content independent data decompression' are undefined and meaningless. . . . While content dependency and independency have a great deal to do with the compression claims in the inventions, they lose all meaning once the encoding process has occurred and the descriptor is appended. All that matters from that point forward is that the encoder was used -- not the method for its selection (i.e., not the content on which the encoder selection was based). Simply put, decompression has everything to do with the algorithm used at the front-end compression and nothing to do with the content on which the selection of that algorithm was based. That presents a mind-twisting conundrum regarding the meaning of the terms at issue -- i.e., a conundrum that 35 U.S.C. § 112 was designed to prevent."

Realtime Data, LLC d/b/a IXO v. Morgan Stanley, et. al., 1-11-cv-06696 (NYSD June 27, 2012, Order) (Forrest, J.).