Filed: Mar. 03, 2020
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 1 Filed: 03/03/2020 NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit _ UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Appellant v. X ONE, INC., Appellee _ 2019-1165 _ Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2017- 01264. _ Decided: March 3, 2020 _ LAUREN ANN DEGNAN, Fish & Richardson PC, Wash- ington, DC, argued for appellant. Also represented by MICHAEL JOHN BALLANCO, CHRISTOPHE
Summary: Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 1 Filed: 03/03/2020 NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit _ UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC., Appellant v. X ONE, INC., Appellee _ 2019-1165 _ Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2017- 01264. _ Decided: March 3, 2020 _ LAUREN ANN DEGNAN, Fish & Richardson PC, Wash- ington, DC, argued for appellant. Also represented by MICHAEL JOHN BALLANCO, CHRISTOPHER..
More
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 1 Filed: 03/03/2020
NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,
Appellant
v.
X ONE, INC.,
Appellee
______________________
2019-1165
______________________
Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2017-
01264.
______________________
Decided: March 3, 2020
______________________
LAUREN ANN DEGNAN, Fish & Richardson PC, Wash-
ington, DC, argued for appellant. Also represented by
MICHAEL JOHN BALLANCO, CHRISTOPHER DRYER, WALTER
KARL RENNER.
DORIS JOHNSON HINES, Finnegan, Henderson,
Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, Washington, DC, ar-
gued for appellee. Also represented by JEFFREY CURTISS
TOTTEN; KEVIN D. RODKEY, Atlanta, GA; JACOB ADAM
SCHROEDER, Palo Alto, CA.
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 2 Filed: 03/03/2020
2 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
______________________
Before PROST, Chief Judge, DYK and WALLACH, Circuit
Judges.
DYK, Circuit Judge.
Uber Technologies, Inc. (“Uber”) appeals a decision of
the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”). The Board
declined to find certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,798,647
(“the ’647 patent”) unpatentable as obvious. We reverse the
Board’s determination of non-obviousness as to the inde-
pendent claims, vacate the Board’s determination as to the
dependent claims, and remand for further proceedings.
BACKGROUND
X One, Inc., (“X One”) owns the ’647 patent, which is
directed to exchanging GPS data between two devices.
The patent’s background section characterizes the prior art
as limited to “one way location sharing”—that is, the shar-
ing of a location of a first device to a second device, but not
from the second device back to the first device. ’647 patent,
col. 1, l. 32. The patent, by contrast, is said to provide for
two-way location sharing. The specification explains that
the claimed invention allows “mutual tracking and op-
tional position mapping displays of members of groups and
instant buddies.” ’647 patent, col. 2, ll. 36–38. In particu-
lar, the patent discloses a “Buddy Watch application” and
a “Mapit” method with which a user can track and map
other users, and also share the user’s location with other
users.
The ’647 patent has three independent claims: claims
1, 22, and 28. Claim 1 recites:
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 3 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 3
A method of tracking proximity of position associ-
ated with a first wireless device relative to a posi-
tion of a second wireless device, wherein one of the
first wireless device and the second wireless device
is associated with a provider of a desired service
and the other of the first wireless device and the
second wireless device is associated with a reques-
tor of the desired service, the method comprising:
causing receipt of information on the first
wireless device representing the position of
the second wireless device and a map asso-
ciated with the position associated with the
first wireless device and the position of sec-
ond wireless device;
causing display of the map on the first
wireless device with position associated
with the first wireless device and the posi-
tion of the second wireless device rendered
thereon; and
causing receipt of information on the first
wireless device representing positional up-
date of the second wireless device, and
causing update of display of the map on the
first wireless device with the position asso-
ciated with the first wireless device and up-
dated position of the second wireless device
rendered thereon;
wherein the causing of the update is to be
performed to indicate proximity of and di-
rection between position of the provider of
the desired service and position associated
with the requestor of the desired service;
wherein the method is invoked responsive
to launching an application on the first
wireless device in connection with a
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 4 Filed: 03/03/2020
4 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
request from the requestor for the desired
service; and
wherein the provider is selected in connec-
tion with the request for the desired service
and the method further comprises forming
a use-specific group to have the first wire-
less device and the second wireless device
in connection with the request for the de-
sired service.
’647 patent, col. 28, l. 50–col. 29, l. 19 (emphasis added).
Independent claim 28 is directed to an apparatus and, like
claim 1, includes a limitation wherein method steps di-
rected to updating a map displayed on a “first wireless de-
vice” based on “positional update[s]” from a “second
wireless device” are “invoked responsive to launching an
application.” ’647 patent, col. 31, l. 37–col. 32, l. 6 (empha-
sis added).
Independent claim 22 recites:
A method of tracking proximity of position associ-
ated with a first wireless device relative to position
of a second wireless device, wherein the first wire-
less device is associated with a requestor of a de-
sired service and the second wireless device is
associated with a provider of the desired service,
the method comprising:
selecting the provider of the desired service
in association with an application launched
by the requestor on the first wireless de-
vice, wherein the second wireless device is
associated with the provider and is thereby
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 5 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 5
selected in associated 1 [sic] with launch of
the application;
causing receipt of information on the first
wireless device representing position of the
provider, dependent on global positioning
system (GPS) position data provided by the
second wireless device, and receipt of infor-
mation representing a map associated with
the position associated with the first wire-
less device and the position of the second
wireless device;
causing display of the map on the first
wireless device with the position associated
with the requestor and the position of the
second wireless device rendered thereon;
and
causing receipt of information on the first
wireless device representing intermittent
positional update dependent on GPS posi-
tion data provided by the second wireless
device, and causing update of display of the
map on the first wireless device with re-
spective position associated with the first
wireless device and positional update de-
pendent on the GPS position data provided
by the second wireless device rendered
thereon;
wherein selecting the provider of the de-
sired service includes forming a use-spe-
cific group to have the first wireless device
1 The word “associated” here appears to be a typo-
graphical error. The Board interpreted “associated” as “as-
sociation,” J.A. 11, and neither party challenges that
interpretation on appeal.
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 6 Filed: 03/03/2020
6 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
and the second wireless device in connec-
tion with the request for the desired ser-
vice.
‘647 patent, col. 30, l. 47–col. 31, l. 12 (emphasis added).
Each independent claim is directed to the idea of dis-
playing a map of the positions of a “first wireless device”
and a “second wireless device” on the first wireless device,
and updating that map based on “positional update[s]” as
to the location of the second wireless device. In each claim,
a method step is or method steps are in some way tied to
the “launch” of an “application.” In claims 1 and 28, a
method of updating a displayed map based on positional
updates is “invoked responsive to launching an applica-
tion.” In claim 22, a “second wireless device” for which lo-
cation is to be mapped is selected “in association with an
application launched by a requestor.”
Uber filed a petition for inter partes review with the
Board, challenging claims 1, 4–11, 13, 22–25, 27–28, 31–
37, 39–42, and 45. The petition asserted the obviousness
of the independent claims—claims 1, 22, and 28—based on
two separate prior art references. The first reference, Jap-
anese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2002-
352388 (“Konishi”), discloses a “vehicle allocation system”
in which a “customer” can reserve a vehicle (e.g., a taxi)
and view, using a “mobile telephone set 13,” a map of “cus-
tomer position” and “vehicle position” as the vehicle ap-
proaches the customer. J.A. 1331–34. The second
reference, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Pub-
lication 2003–168190 (“Mitsuoka”), discloses a “vehicle dis-
patch guidance system” in which a user can use a “portable
terminal” to “request[] dispatch of a taxi” and map the “cur-
rent location of the user” and “current location of the taxi”
as the taxi approaches the user. J.A. 1356–58. Uber also
challenged many of the ’647 patent’s dependent claims as
obvious, relying on other prior art for some limitations.
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 7 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 7
The Board instituted review, but in its final written de-
cision concluded that Uber had failed to show that the in-
dependent claims were unpatentable as obvious. The
Board construed the “responsive to” limitation present in
claims 1 and 28 as requiring the claimed “method” to be
invoked “during or near” the time at which the claimed “ap-
plication” is launched. J.A. 15. The Board construed the
“in association with” limitation present in claim 22 as re-
quiring “some relationship” between application launch
and method invocation.
Id. Applying these constructions,
the Board concluded that neither Konishi nor Mitsuoka
taught the “responsive to” limitation of claims 1 and 28, or
the “in association with” limitation of claim 22. [J.A. 21,
32.] Because the Board concluded that the prior art did not
teach the ’647 patent’s independent claims, the Board did
not separately analyze the ’647 patent’s dependent claims.
Uber appealed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28
U.S.C. § 1295(a)(4)(A).
DISCUSSION
“We review the Board’s factual findings for substantial
evidence and review its legal conclusions de novo.” In re
Cuozzo Speed Techs., LLC,
793 F.3d 1268, 1280 (Fed. Cir.
2015). We thus review de novo the Board’s interpretations
of the patent claims and determinations based on evidence
intrinsic to the patent. Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC,
792 F.3d 1339, 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2015). “If, as here, the IPR
stems from a petition filed before November 13, 2018, the
claims are given the ‘broadest reasonable interpretation’
consistent with the specification.” Game & Tech. Co. v.
Wargaming Grp. Ltd.,
942 F.3d 1343, 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2019)
(quoting Cuozzo Speed Techs., LLC v. Lee,
136 S. Ct. 2131,
2142 (2016)).
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 8 Filed: 03/03/2020
8 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
I
With respect to claims 1 and 28, the Board concluded
that neither Konishi nor Mitsuoka teaches that a method
“is invoked responsive to launching an application.”
J.A. 22, 32. The Board agreed with a district court con-
struction of the “responsive to” limitations as “simply
plac[ing] a temporal relationship on launching and the
other claimed functions.” J.A. 15 (emphasis added) (quot-
ing X One, Inc. v. Uber Techs., Inc., No. 5:16-cv-6050-LHK,
2017 WL 3581184, *22 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 18, 2017)). The
Board went on to “clarify” that the district court’s construc-
tion requires the method to be invoked “during or near” the
time at which the application is launched. J.A. 15. The
Board further stated that “[t]he required relationship is not
shown by simply pointing out that the application was
started some point in time prior to the occurrence of the
recited activities.”
Id.
Applying this construction, the Board concluded that
neither Konishi nor Mitsuoka discloses the “responsive to”
limitations. The Board acknowledged that Konishi dis-
closes “an application [that] is running on the mobile device
and, thus, [that] the application was launched at some
point in time prior to the recited mapping activities.” J.A.
21. The Board similarly found with respect to Mitsuoka
“persuasive evidence of a relationship between the running
application and the invocation of the method.” J.A. 31 (em-
phasis in original). But, for both prior art references, the
Board concluded that there was no sufficient “temporal re-
lationship” between the launch of the application and the
invocation of the method. J.A. 21–22, 31–32.
A
We first address claim construction. The parties differ
as to the correct claim construction. X One appears to ar-
gue that the claims require invocation of the method imme-
diately upon launch of the application, whereas Uber
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 9 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 9
appears to interpret the claims as requiring only that the
method be invoked at some point after launch. We think
neither party’s construction is correct and that the Board’s
“during or near” requirement is generally correct. At the
same time, we agree with Uber that the Board’s claim con-
struction is imprecise and that some refinement of the
Board’s construction is necessary in light of the specifica-
tion.
The intrinsic evidence establishes that the “responsive
to” limitation is met if the claimed method is invoked
minutes or hours after launch of the application. Any nar-
rower of a “during or near” requirement would exclude the
specification’s preferred embodiment. The specification ex-
plains that the mapping method (i.e., “Mapit”) is part of the
disclosed Buddy Watch application. 2 That application
2 X One asserts that “Mapit . . . is itself an applica-
tion.” Appellee’s Br. 29. Thus, to X One, the specification’s
description of Buddy Watch is irrelevant to the construc-
tion of “responsive to.” We disagree. The specification
makes clear that Buddy Watch corresponds to the claimed
“application” and Mapit to the claimed “method.” For ex-
ample, the specification repeatedly characterizes Buddy
Watch as an “application” or “application program,” and in-
stead characterizes Mapit as a “page,” a “screen,” a “com-
mand,” or a “function.” See, e.g., ’647 patent, col. 3, l. 67,
col. 5, l. 21, col. 6, ll. 30–31, col. 10., l. 50, col. 15, l. 59, col.
16, l. 39. For example, the specification describes the
“Mapit page” being launched from within “the Buddy
Watch application.”
Id., Fig. 2C, col. 6, ll. 29–44. Moreo-
ver, the specification describes the “Mapit function” as be-
ing “invoked,” mirroring the claims’ recitation of “wherein
the method is invoked.” Compare
id., col. 15, ll. 59–61 with
id., col. 28, l. 50–col. 29, l. 19. A person of ordinary skill
reading the specification would therefore understand
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 10 Filed: 03/03/2020
10 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
includes functionality to add buddies and view the location
of buddies in a tabular format. A user invokes Mapit to
view the location of other users on a map by selecting
“Mapit” on the Buddy Watch’s “start-up screen.” See ’647
patent, col. 6, ll. 29–44. The specification places no re-
striction on when, after launching Buddy Watch, the user
may select the “Mapit” application. But the specification
discloses several features demonstrating that Mapit may
be invoked minutes or hours after launching Buddy Watch.
The specification notes, for instance, that a user can
open the Buddy Watch application in order to start sharing
the user’s location without immediately invoking Mapit.
See ’647 patent, Fig. 1. As an example, the specification
describes each member of a tennis team sharing his or her
location with the other team members. See ’647 patent, col.
15, ll. 15–25, 39–65. Team members may be in “active sta-
tus”—that is, have the Buddy Watch application launched
and transmitting location data—even before the Mapit
method is practiced. See ’647 patent, Fig. 1, col. 7, ll. 24–
26, col. 15, ll. 18–20. A team member may, therefore, have
launched Buddy Watch (for the purpose of sharing his or
her location) and, minutes or hours later, invoke Mapit (to
see the other team members’ locations).
The specification further notes that in “the preferred
embodiment for the instant buddy setup process,” several
steps need to occur after a user launches the Buddy Watch
application before the user can map the position of an “in-
stant buddy.” These include: (1) an “initiator” user “select-
ing the instant buddy setup process”; (2) “fill[ing] in a
timeout period” for the instant buddy relationship; (3) rout-
ing “instant buddy packets” to the “Buddy Watch[] server”;
(4) “authenticat[ing] the initiator”; (5) sending a message
Mapit to be a method invoked as part of the Buddy Watch
application.
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 11 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 11
to the “proposed instant buddy”; (6) the proposed instant
buddy “accepting or denying the relationship”; (7) “if ac-
cepted,” sending a “packet . . . back to the initiator[]”; (8)
displaying “an [i]nstant [b]uddy accept screen . . . which
the initiator must OK to establish the relationship”; (9)
“record[ing],” at the Buddy Watch server, “the new instant
buddy relationship”; and, finally, (10) “verifying” the “col-
lect[ion of] GPS data.” ’647 patent, Fig. 22, col. 14, l. 54 to
col. 15, l. 13. Thus, a user that launched the Buddy Watch
application to map an instant buddy might only invoke the
Mapit method minutes or hours later, once the instant
buddy setup process has completed.
In sum, the specification contemplates scenarios in
which there are minutes or hours between the launch of
Buddy Watch and the invocation of Mapit. In light of this
disclosure, the Board’s “during or near” requirement must
allow for method invocation minutes or hours after appli-
cation launch. A contrary interpretation would exclude
embodiments of the invention. “A ‘claim construction that
does not encompass a disclosed embodiment is rarely, if
ever, correct.’” Medrad, Inc. v. MRI Devices Corp.,
401 F.3d
1313, 1320 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (quoting Johns Hopkins Univ.
v. CellPro,
152 F.3d 1342, 1355 (Fed. Cir. 1998)) (alteration
omitted).
The “responsive to” limitations in claims 1 and 28 are
met if “the method is invoked” within minutes or hours of
“launching an application.”
B
Under this construction, the Board erred in concluding
that Konishi and Mitsuoka do not teach or suggest the “re-
sponsive to” limitations.
1
Konishi “relates to a vehicle allocation system for allo-
cating commercial vehicles such as taxis or cargo collection
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 12 Filed: 03/03/2020
12 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
and delivery vehicles based on customer reservations.”
J.A. 1331. In Konishi, a user carries a “mobile telephone
set 13” with a “built-in GPS system.” J.A. 1334. To reserve
a vehicle, the user “selects a vehicle allocation service with
the mobile telephone set 13.”
Id. The “mobile telephone
set 13” then sends the position of the phone to an “infor-
mation processing device 11” via a “computer 20.”
Id. The
information processing device 11 retrieves any vacant ve-
hicles located “within a prescribed range from the current
position of the mobile telephone set 13” from a “vehicle
monitoring system 24.”
Id. If there are vacant vehicles in
range, “the information processing device 11 reads out a
map of a region of a specific range with the customer posi-
tion in the center from the map system 28,” “inputs the cus-
tomer position and the current position of the retrieved
vacant vehicle,” “transmits the information to the mobile
telephone set 13,” and “displays the information on the
[mobile telephone set’s] screen 25.”
Id. The customer may
then “make a reservation,” which the driver of the reserved
vehicle can accept. J.A. 1334–35. At this point, “[t]he cur-
rent position of the reserved vehicle, which approaches mo-
ment by moment, is displayed on the map together with the
customer position,” “transmitted to the mobile telephone
set 13,” and “displayed as a navigation display.” J.A. 1335.
The mapping terminates once the user indicates that he or
she has entered the reserved vehicle.
Konishi’s disclosure exactly parallels the ’647 patent’s
claims. The “application” is Konishi’s vehicle allocation
service. The “launching” of the “application” is when in
Konishi the user selects a vehicle allocation service with
the mobile telephone set 13. The “method” of Konishi is the
display of a map with the position of a reserved vehicle up-
dated “moment by moment” as it approaches the user.
The very purpose of Konishi is to start mapping shortly
after the launch of the vehicle allocation service. Konishi
notes that, in the prior art, “because the customer is
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 13 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 13
unaware of the current position of a reserved vehicle, the
customer is uneasy about whether the reserved vehicle will
arrive in the promised time.” J.A. 1332. Konishi also notes
that, in the prior art, “because the person in charge [of ve-
hicle allocation] talks with the customer by telephone, the
method requires the response time of the person in charge.”
Id. The purpose of Konishi is, therefore, to quickly reserve
a vehicle and display the location of that vehicle on a map
as it arrives. Thus, a user in Konishi typically will reserve
a vehicle within minutes after launching the vehicle allo-
cation service. Konishi’s mapping “method” is “invoked”
when a vehicle is reserved. Accordingly, Konishi teaches
the “responsive to” limitations of claims 1 and 28. To be
sure, Konishi does not place a strict time constraint on
when, after launching the vehicle allocation service, a user
may reserve a vehicle. But neither does the ’647 patent
impose a strict time constraint between launching Buddy
Watch and invoking the MapIt method.
Konishi discloses the “responsive to” limitations. Be-
cause X One did not argue before the Board that any other
limitations of claims 1 or 28 were not disclosed by Konishi,
we conclude that those claims would have been obvious in
light of Konishi.
2
Mitsuoka, is directed to a system in which users re-
serve taxis and view taxi positions on a map. In Mitsuoka,
a user can “request[] dispatch of a taxi 3,” by “mak[ing] a
dial-up connection to [Application Service Provider
(“ASP”)] 4 from the user’s portable terminal 1.” J.A. 1356.
At “ASP 4, the maps in map [database (“DB”)] 15 are
searched based on the location information for portable ter-
minal 1 . . . and a map of the vicinity of the current location
of portable terminal 1 is extracted.”
Id. “An image repre-
senting the user . . . is then . . . added at the location of
portable terminal 1 on the extracted map.”
Id. Similarly,
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 14 Filed: 03/03/2020
14 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
“location information for taxis 3, which is transmitted from
taxis 3, is constantly received in ASP 4.”
Id. “[I]f the re-
ceived location of an available taxi is within the map ex-
tracted from map DB 15, a taxi image . . . is added at the
location of the available taxi on the extracted map.”
Id.
The ASP 4 then “transmits . . . the map data . . . to portable
terminal 1.” J.A. 1357. The user can then request, for ex-
ample, “taxi 3A,” and “this selection information is trans-
mitted to ASP 4.”
Id. As taxi 3A travels to the user, “the
ASP 4 receives . . . location information successively trans-
mitted from taxi 3A, adds an image of the taxi to the corre-
sponding location on the vicinity map, and delivers this
display data in real time to the portable terminal 1, as a
result of which, the status of the requested taxi heading to
[the user’s] own current location is displayed in real time
along with a map of the vicinity on the display unit of the
portable terminal 1.”
Id.
Mitsuoka’s disclosure exactly parallels the ’647 pa-
tent’s claims. The process in Mitsuoka’s portable user ter-
minal that makes a dial-up connection to the ASP 4 is, as
the Board found, an “application.” Making the dial-up con-
nection is, therefore, “launching” the application. The
mapping “method” of Mitsuoka displays the real-time loca-
tion of a requested taxi on a map as the taxi heads to the
user’s location. This “method” is “invoked” when the user
requests the taxi. In Mitsuoka (as in Konishi), the user will
typically invoke the “method” (i.e., request the taxi) within
minutes of when the connection between the user terminal
and the ASP is made.
It is true that Mitsuoka’s disclosure does not specify a
strict time limit between connecting to the ASP (i.e., the
“launch” of the “application”) and requesting a taxi (i.e., the
“invok[ing]” of the “method”). But neither does the ’647 pa-
tent impose a strict time limit between launching Buddy
Watch and invoking the MapIt method. Mitsuoka teaches
the “responsive to” limitations of claims 1 and 28.
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 15 Filed: 03/03/2020
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC. 15
Because X One did not argue before the Board that any
other limitations of claims 1 or 28 were not disclosed by
Mitsuoka, we conclude that those claims would have been
obvious in light of Mitsuoka.
II
The Board concluded that neither Konishi nor
Mitsuoka renders obvious claim 22’s limitation that a “sec-
ond wireless device” (whose location is to be mapped) is “se-
lected in association with launch of the application.” J.A.
22–23, 32–33 (emphasis added). The Board adopted the
district court’s construction of the “in association with” lan-
guage, which stated that “‘[r]esponsive to launching’
simply places a temporal relationship on launching and the
other claimed functions: they happen in response to
launching. ‘In association with an application launched’ is
broader, and just requires some relationship between
launching and the claimed functions.” J.A. 15 (quoting X
One,
2017 WL 3581184, at *22) (alteration in original) (em-
phasis added).
We agree with the Board that the “in association with”
limitation is “broader” than the “responsive to” limitation.
J.A. 15. As we have explained, both Konishi and Mitsuoka
disclose the “responsive to” limitation. It follows, then,
that Konishi and Mitsuoka disclose the “in association
with” limitation. Specifically, Konishi’s selection of a vehi-
cle to be reserved (i.e., the claimed “select[ion]”) occurs af-
ter and as a result of (i.e., “in association with”) the
selection of the vehicle allocation service (i.e., the “the
launch of the application”). Mitsuoka’s request for a taxi
(i.e., the claimed “select[ion]”) occurs after and as a result
of (i.e., “in association with”) the portable user terminal’s
connection to the ASP (i.e., “the launch of the application”).
Konishi and Mitsuoka thus teach claim 22’s “in association
with” limitation.
Case: 19-1165 Document: 46 Page: 16 Filed: 03/03/2020
16 UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. X ONE, INC.
X One did not argue before the Board that any other
limitation of claim 22 rendered it patentable over the prior
art. Thus, we conclude that claim 22 would have been ob-
vious in light of Konishi and, independently, in light of
Mitsuoka.
CONCLUSION
We reverse the Board’s determination of non-obvious-
ness as to the ’647 patent’s independent claims (claims 1,
22, and 28), vacate the Board’s determination of non-obvi-
ousness as to the dependent claims (claims 4, 5–11, 13, 23–
25, 27, 31–37, 39–42, and 45), and remand the case to the
Board to separately consider the patentability of the de-
pendent claims.
REVERSED-IN-PART, VACATED-IN-PART, AND
REMANDED
COSTS
No costs.