Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Patent Claim for "Optimization" of Database is Invalid as Indefinite

Defendant's motion for summary judgment of invalidity was granted because the only asserted claim included the term "optimization" which was insolubly ambiguous. "[B]ecause optimization necessarily involves tradeoffs, a database that is demonstrably inferior to the original data source with respect to the most important characteristics would still be superior with respect to some characteristic and therefore 'optimized.' A competitor would have no way to know whether a process for transforming a data source into a new database led to 'optimization' and would be subject to an infringement suit if the patent holder could locate a single characteristic of the database that is superior to that of the data source."

Data Retrieval Technology LLC et al. v. Sybase, Inc. et al., 3-08-cv-05481 (CAND November 8, 2010, Claim Construction Order) (Walker, J.)

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