April 2013

Spotlight Info

In Move, Inc. v. Real Estate Alliance Ltd., No. 12-1342 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 4, 2013), the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s decision granting SJ of noninfringement of a patent directed to a method of using a computer for locating available real estate properties within a selected area on a map.  Initially, the Court affirmed the district court’s determination that Move, Inc. (“Move”) did not directly infringe Real Estate Alliance Ltd.’s (“Real”) claim, because Move’s computer did not perform certain steps of selecting area boundaries on a map.  Rather, users of its websites freely made this selection and Move did not exercise direction or control over those users.  Turning to 35 U.S.C. § 271(b), the Court noted that the district court did not analyze induced infringement, under the new standard set forth in Akamai Technologies Co. v. Limelight Networks, Inc., 692 F.3d 1301, 1307 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (en banc).  In addition, the district court did not determine whether a genuine issue of material fact existed as to the performance of all the claim steps—whether by one entity or several, or whether Move had actual knowledge of the asserted patent and induced users to perform the steps of the asserted patent that Move itself did not perform.  Accordingly, the Federal Circuit remanded for a determination of liability for induced infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b).