Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_19-cv-01281/USCOURTS-cand-3_19-cv-01281-1/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 830
Nature of Suit: Patent
Cause of Action: 28:1338 Patent Infringement

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United States District Court

Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

DRONE LABS, LLC,

Plaintiff,

v.

DEDRONE HOLDINGS, INC.,

Defendant.

Case No. 19-cv-01281-EMC 

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S 

MOTION TO DISMISS

Docket No. 45

Plaintiff Drone Labs, LLC has sued Defendant Dedrone Holdings, Inc. for patent 

infringement. The patent at issue is the ‘018 patent. Previously, the Court granted Dedrone’s 

motion to dismiss the first amended complaint (“FAC”) but with leave to amend. Drone thereafter 

filed its second amended complaint (“SAC”) and Dedrone now moves to dismiss the SAC. 

According to Dedrone, Drone has failed to adequately plead direct patent infringement – i.e., 

Drone has not pled that the accused products meet all of the limitations of the relevant claims. See

SAC ¶¶ 40-41 (alleging that Dedrone infringes on claim 1 of the ‘018 patent, the only independent 

claim, as well as claims 2-10, which are all dependent claims). Dedrone further argues that 

dismissal is warranted because the ‘018 patent does not cover patent eligible subject matter. 

Having considered the parties’ briefs and accompanying submissions, as well as the oral argument 

of counsel, the Court hereby GRANTS Dedrone’s motion.

I. FACTUAL & PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The ‘018 patent is titled “System for identifying drones.” In the ‘018 specification, the 

abstract explains that the invention is “[a] system for identifying a drone . . . adapted to determine 

a base threat value for a drone” – ultimately, so that “the user can determine whether the drone is a 

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friend or foe.” ‘018 patent, abstract. The full text of the abstract is as follows:

A system for identifying a drone is adapted to determine a base 

threat value for a drone. The system includes a scanning system, 

configured to obtain data that is stored in a pattern database. A 

timer that has a data structure for storing a counter initialized to a 

predetermined value, the time being operable to iteratively 

increment the counter if the counter value is less than a time 

increment. A microprocessor is programmed with instructions to 

receive information from the scanning system about the drone. 

Then, to store the information in a pattern database. After that, to 

determine a base threat value of the drone based on the information 

stored in the pattern database. Finally, to communicate the base 

threat value to a user so that the user can determine whether the 

drone is a friend or foe.

‘018 patent, abstract.

The ‘018 patent has only one independent claim, i.e., claim 1. (The remaining claims, 

claims 2-10, are dependent claims.) Claim 1 reads as follows:

1. A system for identifying a drone is adapted to determine a base 

threat value for a drone; the system comprising:

a scanning system, wherein the scanning system obtains data that is 

then stored in a pattern database;

a timer; the timer having a data structure for storing a counter 

initialized to a predetermined value, the timer being operable to 

iteratively increment the counter if the counter value is less than a

timer increment;

a microprocessor, programmed with instructions to:

receive information from the scanning system about the 

drone;

store the information in a pattern database;

determine a base threat value of the drone based on the 

information stored in the pattern database;

communicat[e] the base threat value to a user so that the user 

can determine whether the drone is a friend or a foe; and

start the counter and perform the following instructions in a 

loop until the timer increment is reached:

receiving identifying information from a transponder 

signal from the drone;

calculating an updated threat level based on the 

identifying information;

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receiving position information including a distance, a 

location, a speed, and an altitude from the drone;

re-calculating the updated threat level based on the 

position information;

determining a compass position of the drone;

re-calculating the updated threat level based on the 

compass position;

logging the updated threat level in the pattern

database increment the time.

‘018 patent, claim 1.

According to Drone, “Dedrone’s marketing materials indicate that Dedrone’s core system 

operates in the same way as [Drone’s] patented invention, which iteratively makes a threat 

assessment based upon data that is . . . ingested into a scanning system, processed, and evaluated 

as a potential threat using information stored in a database.” SAC ¶ 31. In particular:

• “The Accused Drone Detection System scans the surrounding area to obtain data 

and store the data in a database containing drone-related data.” SAC ¶ 48.

• “The microprocessors in the Accused Devices receive information from the 

scanning system about the detected drone; process, manipulate and store the 

retrieved information; and compare the gathered data about the identified object 

against information stored in a database to assess whether the object is recognized 

or poses a threat to the area being monitored. The Accused Drone Detection 

System then alerts the user to determine whether the detected drone is a friend or 

foe.” SAC ¶ 43.

• “Upon information and belief, the Accused Drone Detection System receives 

information from its RF sensors about the detected drone – including information 

such as distance, location, speed, altitude, and other captured data – and it uses this 

information to query the DroneDNA database to assess and evaluate the threat 

posed by the detected drone, process the returned results, memorialize/capture the 

newly-queried information, and alert the user to any perceived threat.” SAC ¶ 44.

• “[T]he Accused Drone Detection System also detects the ‘compass position’ or its 

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functional equivalent (i.e., a measurement of direction) for a detected drone . . . .” 

SAC ¶ 44; see also SAC at 18 n.23 (stating that “the compass position (i.e., the 

directional measurement) of a monitored drone is measured and considered in 

assessing threats of an approaching drone and displaying those threats to the user”). 

Drone provides a picture from Dedrone’s DroneTracker User Interface 4.0 Cloud 

System Manual to support the allegation that the accused system has the compass 

position limitation. According to Drone, the picture “depict[s] [an] alert screen 

with locations of RF Sensors, directional measurements of detected drones (i.e., 

compass positions depicted with yellow lines), drone position estimates, and 

mapping of alert zone).” SAC ¶ 44.

• “[T]he Accused Drone Detection System works in real-time by continuously 

monitoring and assessing the perceived threat of an identified drone.” SAC ¶ 44. 

“The Accused Drone Detection System continuously updates the magnitude of the 

threat posed by the identified drone and reports the assessment to the user, 

including its proximity to the monitored location. The Accused Drone Detection 

System continuously monitors the predefined area to provide real-time information 

to the system user.” SAC ¶ 44.

II. DISCUSSION

As noted above, Dedrone moves to dismiss the SAC based on two grounds: (1) for failure 

to plead that the accused products meet all of the limitations of the relevant claims, and (2) for 

invalidity of the ‘018 patent based on nonpatentability. Both arguments are made pursuant to 

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). See, e.g., Genetic Techs. Ld. v. Merial L.L.C., 818 F.3d 

1369, 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (noting that patent eligibility is a question of law and that the Federal 

Circuit has “repeatedly recognized that in many cases it is possible to determine patent eligibility 

under 35 U.S.C. § 101 on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion”).

To overcome a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss after the Supreme Court’s decisions in 

Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009), and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), 

a plaintiff’s “factual allegations [in the complaint] ‘must . . . suggest that the claim has at least a 

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plausible chance of success.’” Levitt v. Yelp! Inc., 765 F.3d 1123, 1135 (9th Cir. 2014). The court 

“accept[s] factual allegations in the complaint as true and construe[s] the pleadings in the light 

most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Manzarek v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 519 F.3d 

1025, 1031 (9th Cir. 2008). But “allegations in a complaint . . . may not simply recite the 

elements of a cause of action [and] must contain sufficient allegations of underlying facts to give 

fair notice and to enable the opposing party to defend itself effectively.” Levitt, 765 F.3d at 1135 

(internal quotation marks omitted). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads 

factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable 

for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678. “The plausibility standard is not akin to a 

probability requirement, but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted 

unlawfully.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). 

In the instant case, there are serious questions as to whether the ‘018 patent is invalid based 

on nonpatentability – even taking into account that invalidity must be proved by clear and 

convincing evidence. See Cisco Sys. v. Uniloc USA, Inc., No. 18-cv-04991-SI, 2019 U.S. Dist. 

LEXIS 76335, at *6-7 (N.D. Cal. May 6, 2019) (“[A]n alleged infringer asserting an invalidity 

defense pursuant to § 101 bears the burden of proving invalidity by clear and convincing 

evidence.”). For example, is a fair argument that the focus of the patent – or what the patent is 

directed to – is an abstract idea, see Thales Visionix, Inc. v. United States, 850 F.3d 1343, 1349 

(Fed. Cir. 2017); BSG Tech LLC v. Buyseasons, Inc., 899 F.3d 1281, 1287 (Fed. Cir. 2018), i.e., 

“the abstract idea of collecting information about a flying object [and] determin[ing] whether it is 

a threat.” Mot. at 12. See, e.g., Elec. Power Grp., LLC v. Alstom S.A., 830 F.3d 1350, 1353 (Fed. 

Cir. 2016) (holding that the patent claim at issue – which covered “[a] method of detecting events 

on an inter-connected electric power grid in real time over a wide area and automatically 

analyzing the events on the interconnected power grid” – was essentially about “collecting 

information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis,” all of 

which were abstract ideas). 

There is also a fair argument that the ‘018 patent lacks an “inventive concept in the 

application of the ineligible matter to which . . . the [patent] is directed,” id. at 1354 (internal 

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quotation marks omitted) – i.e., that the determination of whether the flying object is a threat

involves nothing more than mental processes that the human mind can engage in, at least in the 

absence of a more specific explanation of what the ‘018 teaches beyond perceiving a flight pattern 

that can be humanly perceived as posing a threat. See Mot. at 13 (arguing that “[h]umans have 

observed birds for millennia and mentally determined whether they are a threat based on how big 

they are, how close they are, how fast they are moving, their altitude, and other observational 

characteristics”); see also Synopsys, Inc. v. Mentor Graphics Corp., 839 F.3d 1138, 1146 (Fed. 

Cir. 2016) (noting that mental processes that can be performed by the human mind are “‘a 

subcategory of unpatentable abstract ideas’”); CyberSource Corp. v. Retail Decisions, Inc., 654 

F.3d 1366, 1372 (Fed. Cir. 2011) (explaining that “computational methods which can be 

performed entirely in the human mind are the types of methods that embody the ‘basic tools of 

scientific and technological work’ that are free to all men and reserved exclusively to none”). It is 

not at all clear that the ‘018 patent does something beyond human capacity (e.g., processing subtle 

observations beyond those perceptible by humans, using an algorithm in calculating the level of 

threat exceeding the capacity of human calculation, etc.).

The Court, however, need not resolve the issue of patentability because there is a simpler

and independent basis for dismissal of the SAC. That is, as Dedrone argues, Drone has failed to 

adequately plead that the accused products critical claim limitations of the ‘018 patent. The Court 

focuses on claim 1 as that is the only independent claim in the ‘018 patent. 

The Court acknowledges Drone’s argument that Dedrone seems to be demanding that 

Drone map claim limitations on to the accused product with the kind of specificity that one would 

expect from infringement contentions. The Court also acknowledges Drone’s assertion that 

Dedrone is essentially taking claim construction positions here even though a Markman hearing is 

far down the road. These arguments are not without some merit, at least as to some of the claim 

limitations that Dedrone has addressed in its papers.

The problem for Drone is that there is at least one claim limitation for which Dedrone is 

not asking for infringement-contention-like specificity and for which no claim construction issue 

is apparent – namely, the “transponder” claim limitation. See ‘018 patent, claim 1 (providing for 

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“receiving identifying information from a transponder signal from the drone”). At the hearing, 

Dedrone provided the “transponder” claim limitation as one example where Drone had failed to 

plead a claim limitation in the SAC.1 In response, Drone cited to paragraphs 42-44 in the SAC; 

however, nowhere in these paragraphs is there a reference to the accused products receiving 

anything from a transponder signal from the drone. See, e.g., SAC ¶ 43 (alleging that “[t]he 

microprocessors in the Accused Devices receive information from the scanning system about the 

detected drone”); SAC ¶ 44 (alleging that “the Accused Drone Detection System receives 

information from its RF sensors about the detected drone”).

Because Drone has failed to adequately allege the “transponder” claim limitation in its 

SAC, the Court finds that dismissal of the SAC is warranted. The only remaining issue is whether 

the dismissal should be with or without prejudice. Because the Court previously gave Drone the 

opportunity to file the SAC after it failed to adequately plead all claim limitations, the Court finds 

that, at this juncture, dismissal with prejudice is appropriate. Cf. Telesaurus VPC, Ltd. Liab. Co. 

v. Power, 623 F.3d 998, 1003 (9th Cir. 2010) (noting that leave to amend may be denied “if the 

plaintiff had several opportunities to amend its complaint and repeatedly failed to cure 

deficiencies”). 

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1 The Court notes that Dedrone did not bring up the “transponder” claim limitation until its reply 

brief. See Reply at 3. Nevertheless, Drone was given an opportunity to address the claim 

limitation at the hearing and thus was not prejudiced as a result.

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III. CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants Dedrone’s motion to dismiss with prejudice. 

To the extent Drone noted at the hearing that it wished to add new claims of patent infringement 

based on a continuation patent application that was recently granted, it is not precluded from filing 

a new patent infringement case. However, this case is now closed.

The Clerk of the Court is directed to enter a final judgment and close the file in this case.

This order disposes of Docket No. 45.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: September 12, 2019

______________________________________

EDWARD M. CHEN

United States District Judge

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