Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly
An inventor who is suing Twitter for infringement of his 2002 patent of a system for “an interactive virtual community of famous people,” or people who want to be famous, has an Alexandria U.S. District Court provide a claim construction for the term “field of endeavor,” but the court defers construction of “interact with the profile” and says two additional terms — “obtaining biographical information” and “create a personal profile” – do not require additional construction.
The proper construction of “field of endeavor” is an “occupation or pursuit to which a person devotes a degree of effort.” The court finds that the term “obtaining biographical information” does not require a further definition. Likewise, the court concludes the term “create a personal profile” also does not require a further definition, as it would not provide any additional particularity or clarity to assist the finder of fact.
Finally, the court finds that any attempt to define the term “interact with the profile” at this stage of the proceedings would be premature. As demonstrated by the fact that the conflicting definitions focus on what constitutes infringement in the instant case, the construction of the term has a profound impact on the ultimate issue of infringement. The court will reserve ruling upon the proper construction of “interact with the profile.”
VS Technologies LLC v. Twitter Inc. (Morgan) No. 2:11cv43, Sept. 23, 2011; USDC at Alexandria, Va. VLW 011-3-518, 15 pp.
