IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS 

WACO DIVISION 

WSOU INVESTMENTS LLC,

 Plaintiff 

-vDELL TECHNOLOGIES INC., DELL 

INC., EMC CORPORATION, 

 Defendant 

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6-20-cv-00473 

6-20-cv-00474 

6-20-cv-00475 

6-20-cv-00476 

6-20-cv-00477 

6-20-cv-00478 

6-20-cv-00479 

6-20-cv-00480 

6-20-cv-00481 

6-20-cv-00482 

6-20-cv-00485 

6-20-cv-00486 

CLAIM CONSTRUCTION ORDER 

The Court held Markman hearings on May 10, 2021 and May 26, 2021. During those 

hearings, the Court provided its final constructions. The Court now enters those claim 

constructions. 

SIGNED this 27th of May, 2021. 

ALAN D ALBRIGHT 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 
-473, -478 Cases 

Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“group of communication 

traffic” 

(’144 Patent, Claims 1, 4, 11, 

12, 14) 

[Proposed by Defendants] 

Plain and ordinary meaning “traffic in a VLAN or other 

identifiable communications 

group” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 

“V is a group identifier 

corresponding to the group of 

communication traffic” 

(’144 Patent, Claims 1, 11, 14) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Plain and ordinary meaning; 

but the group identifier cannot 

be a hash value based on 

packet fields such as source 

address and destination 

address 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 

“fast propagation” 

(’921 Patent, Claims 1, 9, 17) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

In the alternative this means 

“much faster than using the 

computing means, e.g., by 

using OSPF routing protocol” 

Not indefinite. Plain-andordinary meaning wherein the 

plain-and-ordinary meaning is 

“faster than using the 

computing means 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“data plane means for 

forwarding packets between 

the nodes” (’921 Patent, 

Claim 1) / “data plane means 

for forwarding packets to 

other nodes in the network” (’ 

921 Patent, Claims 9, 17) 

(Proposed by both Parties) 

Subject to means-plus-function 

construction. 

 

Claim 1 

Function: forwarding packets 

between the nodes 

Structure: 4:44-60 (link 

interface 216 and switching 

fabric 214); and equivalent 

structures 

Claim 9 & 17 

Function: forwarding packets 

to other nodes in the network 

Structure: 4:44-60 (link 

interface 216 and switching 

fabric 214); and equivalent 

structures 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

 

Claim 1 

Function: forwarding packets 

between the nodes 

Structure: Data plane 202 

(distinct from the computing 

means) including switching 

fabric 214 and link interface 

216; and equivalent structures 

Claim 9 & 17 

Function: forwarding packets 

to other nodes in the network 

Structure: Data plane 202 

(distinct from the computing 

means) including switching 

fabric 214 and link interface 

216; and equivalent structures 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

 

Claim 1: 

Function: forwarding packets 

between the nodes 

Structure: link interface 216 

and switching fabric 214 in 

data plane 202, and equivalent 

structures 

Claim 9 & 17: 

Function: forwarding packets 

to other nodes in the network 

Structure: link interface 216 

and switching fabric 214 in 

data plane 202, and equivalent 

structures 

 
-474, -475, -476, -479 Cases 

Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“bridge” 

(’536 Patent, Claims 1, 12) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “a network interface device 

that operates no higher than the 

data link layer” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 

“channel in a connection-based 

network” 

(’536 Patent, Claims 1, 12) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “one of the paths that has been 

established in a network for 

communications” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“forwarding system 

configured to read a priority of 

a data frame to be forwarded 

onto the connection-based 

network by way of the first 

one of the ports, identify a 

service interface which the 

map indicates corresponds to 

the read user priority and 

forward the data frame over 

the channel in the connectionbased network associated with 

the identified service 

interface” 

(’536 Patent, Claim 1) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: read a priority of a 

data frame to be forwarded 

onto the connection-based 

network by way of the first 

one of the ports, identify a 

service interface which the 

map indicates corresponds to 

the read user priority and 

forward the data frame over 

the channel in the connectionbased network associated with 

the identified service interface 

Structure: Indefinite 

Not subject to § 112, ¶ 6. 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“means for reading priorities 

of data frames directed by the 

bridge to at least a first one of 

the bridge ports” 

(’536 Patent, Claim 12) 

(Proposed by both Parties) 

Subject to means-plus-function 

construction. 

Function: reading priorities of 

data frames directed by the 

bridge to at least a first one of 

the bridge ports 

Structure: bridge, with 

bridging system and bridge 

port, and equivalents thereof 

Algorithm (if required): see 

e.g., 4:26-37, 5:40-55, 6:4-14, 

6:15-42, 7:23-44, 8:21-28, 

Figs. 1, 2, 4, 5A-I, 6, and 

equivalents thereof. 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: reading priorities of 

data frames directed by the 

bridge to at least a first one of 

the bridge ports 

Structure: Indefinite 

Subject to 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 

6. 

Function: reading priorities of 

data frames directed by the 

bridge to at least a first one of 

the bridge ports 

Structure: Indefinite due to 

lack of structure 

“stackable trunk port” 

(’888 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 9, 

10, 11–13, 15, 19, 20) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “trunk port supporting the 

Riverstone solution (i.e. the 

additional extension 802.1Q 

packet header)” 

“trunk port supporting the 

Riverstone solution (i.e. the 

additional extension 802.1Q 

packet header)” 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“backbone VLAN trunk” 

(’888 Patent, Claims 1, 5–7, 

12, 15–20) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “data transport trunk links 

defined between stackable 

trunk ports on core routers” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“wherein the selection and 

association of at least one 

backbone VLAN ID with each 

one of the corresponding 

plurality of backbone VLAN 

trunks is undertaken 

irrespective of one of an inuse and a stand-by designation 

of each one of the plurality of 

backbone VLAN trunks and 

each one of the plurality of 

stackable trunk ports” (’888 

Patent, Claim 1) / “wherein 

the association of the plurality 

of backbone VLAN IDs with 

the backbone VLAN trunk is 

undertaken irrespective of one 

of an in-use and a stand-by 

designation of the backbone 

VLAN trunk and the at least 

one stackable trunk port” 

(’888 Patent, Claim 15) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “wherein the provisioning 

method ignores the 

designation of a backbone 

VLAN trunk as in-use or 

stand-by when associating the 

backbone VLAN ID with the 

backbone VLAN trunks (as 

opposed to, during association 

of VLANs with trunks, 

explicitly designating physical 

VLANs associated with a 

logical VLAN as in-use and 

explicitly designating other 

physical VLANs associated 

with the logical VLAN as 

back-up)” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“setting the IPPC of one of the 

ports of one of said bridges 

within the MSTI to a lower 

IPPC when said port is part of 

the VLAN member set” 

(’435 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 13) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Order of steps: The setting of 

the IPPC to a lower IPPC must 

occur after the creation and 

configuration of the Multiple 

Spanning Tree Instances step 

and after the creation of the 

VLAN member sets step 

No order except: 

 Claims 1 and 8: [d] cannot 

start until after completion 

of the actions for the 

corresponding MSTI and 

VLAN in [a] and [b], 

respectively 

 Claim 13: [e] cannot start 

until after completion of 

the actions for the 

corresponding MSTI and 

VLAN in [b] and [c], 

respectively 

“ideally” 

(’435 Patent, Claims 7, 11, 18) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite Not indefinite. Plain-andordinary meaning. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“processing unit for setting the 

Internal Port Path Cost (IPPC) 

of one of the ports of one of 

said bridges within the MSTI 

to a high IPPC when said port 

is not part of the VLAN 

member set” (’435 Patent, 

Claim 8) / “processing unit for 

setting the IPPC of one of the 

ports of one of said bridges 

within the MSTI to a lower 

IPPC when said port is part of 

the VLAN member set” (’435 

Patent, Claim 8) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning This is subject to 35 U.S.C. § 

112, ¶ 6. 

Function: setting the Internal 

Port Path Cost (IPPC) of one 

of the ports of one of said 

bridges within the MSTI [to a 

high IPPC when said port is 

not part of the VLAN member 

set / to a lower IPPC when 

said port is part of the VLAN 

member set] 

Structure: Indefinite 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 

“rate of change” 

(’129 Patent, Claim 3) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Plain and ordinary meaning; 

not an instantaneous value 

measured at a fixed point in 

time 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“initiating a poll of resources 

in the nodes of the network by 

the management station in 

response to reporting from the 

node or a time interval being 

exceeded” 

(’129 Patent, Claim 3) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Both of these events trigger a 

poll 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning 

 
-477, -482 Cases 

Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“the first set of port interfaces 

of the multi-chassis link 

aggregate” 

(’489 Patent, Claims 1, 8, 15) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite Not indefinite. Plain-andordinary meaning. 

“removing, at the network 

node, the protocol data of a 

portion of protocol layers from 

the received data stream” (’020 

Patent, Claim 1) / “removes 

protocol data from a portion of 

protocol layers from a data 

stream” (’020 Patent, Claim 6) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite Not indefinite. Plain-andordinary meaning. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“a control unit which removes 

protocol data from a portion of 

protocol layers from a data 

stream received from the 

communication network via 

the second interface, the data 

stream comprising useful data 

and the protocol data, and 

switches a remaining data 

stream to be transmitted to one 

of the terminals via the first 

interface” 

(’020 Patent, Claim 6) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning; 

not indefinite under IPXL 

Indefinite. 

In the alternative: this term is 

subject to 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6.

Function: [1] removes 

protocol data from a portion of 

protocol layers from a data 

stream received from the 

communication network via 

the second interface, the data 

stream comprising useful data 

and the protocol data, and [2] 

switches a remaining data 

stream to be transmitted to one 

of the terminals via the first 

interface 

Structure: control unit 

CONTR executing function 

PHN, containing processes P1 

to P3 and function SW; and 

equivalent structures 

Not indefinite. Plain-andordinary meaning. 

“bus system” 

(’020 Patent, Claims 1, 6) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “a network that does not 

include any active components 

such as switching nodes, 

gateways, routers, or bridges, 

wherein all nodes are 

connected to a single wire” 

“a network that does not 

include any active components 

such as switching nodes, 

gateways, routers, or bridges” 
-480, -481, -485, -486 Cases 

Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“whether a congestion 

condition exists [on/for] the 

egress node” 

(’133 Patent, Claims 1, 12, 13) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “whether the egress node is 

currently congested” 

 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 

“processing the packets” 

(’133 Patent, Claims 1, 12, 13) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “modifying, at the ingress 

node, the queuing priority of 

packets destined for the egress 

node” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 

“such that packets associated 

with egress nodes for which 

the congestion condition does 

not exist have a different 

queuing priority within the 

load balancing network than 

packets associated with egress 

nodes for which the 

congestion condition exists” 

(’133 Patent, Claims 1, 12, 13) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “such that packets are marked 

depending on whether they 

are destined for a congested 

egress node, such that marked 

packets have a different 

probability of being dropped” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“means for determining, for 

each packet, whether a 

congestion condition exists on 

the egress node” 

(’133 Patent, Claim 12) 

(Proposed by both Parties) 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: determining, for 

each packet, whether a 

congestion condition exists on 

the egress node 

Structure: processor 210 

performing operations at ’133 

patent, 5:11-20 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: determining, for 

each packet, whether a 

congestion condition exists on 

the egress node 

Structure: Indefinite 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: determining, for 

each packet, whether a 

congestion condition exists on 

the egress node 

Structure: processor 210 

Algorithm: None and thus 

indefinite for failure to 

disclose an algorithm. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“means for processing the 

packets such that packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition does not exist have a 

different queuing priority 

within the load-balancing 

network than packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition exists” 

(’133 Patent, Claim 12) 

(Proposed by both Parties) 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: processing the 

packets such that packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition does not exist have 

a different queuing priority 

within the load-balancing 

network than packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition exists 

Structure: processor 210 

which marks packets in a 

manner that differentiates 

queuing priority based on 

whether the packets are 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition exists 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: processing the 

packets such that packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition does not exist have 

a different queuing priority 

within the load-balancing 

network than packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition exists 

Structure: processor 210 

which marks the packets such 

that marked packets have a 

different probability of being 

dropped than unmarked 

packets 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: processing the 

packets such that packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition does not exist have a 

different queuing priority 

within the load-balancing 

network than packets 

associated with egress nodes 

for which the congestion 

condition exists 

Structure/Algorithm: 

processor 210 which marks 

packets in a manner that 

differentiates queuing priority 

based on whether the packets 

are associated with egress 

nodes for which the congestion 

condition exists. See, e.g., 

5:33-36, 9:61-10:2, and 14:56-

62. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“latency cost” 

(’800 Patent, Claims 1, 13) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “communication delay 

between a compute node and a 

data node” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 

“[determining/determine] an 

assignment objective” 

(’800 Patent, Claims 1, 13) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “select[ing] one of a plurality 

of assignment objectives” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning1

1

 – The plain-and-ordinary 

meaning only excludes hardcoded single-objective 

assignments. It does not, 

however, exclude a 

determination where there may 

only be a single assignment 

objective available when the 

“determination” step is made. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“said element comprises: an 

element for recording whether 

a queue is empty or occupied, 

an element for recording the 

[number of data cells/quantity 

of data] contained in a queue, 

an element identifying a 

queue from which data is to 

be output, and an element 

identifying a group of queues 

from which data is to be 

output” 

(’360 Patent, Claims 1, 26) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “said element includes all of: 

an element for recording 

whether a queue is empty or 

occupied, an element for 

recording the quantity of data 

contained in a queue, an 

element identifying a queue 

from which data is to be 

output, and an element 

identifying a group of queues 

from which data is to be 

output” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 

“expected state for said 

element”; “expected states for 

that element”; “expected status 

for said element”; “expected 

state of said first element” 

(’360 Patent, Claims 3, 12, 13, 

18, 21, 24, 26, 28, 29, 48, 49) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “a [state/value] for the 

[element/parameter] that 

would be expected if the 

scheduler is functioning 

properly” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“predetermined state for said 

element” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 1) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “a state for the element that 

would be expected if the 

scheduler is functioning 

properly” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 

“computer generated model” 

(’360 Patent, Claims 1, 18, 21, 

26, 44, 45) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning “a simulated computer model 

of circuitry describing a 

scheduler” 

Plain-and-ordinary meaning. 

“detection means for detecting 

a state of an element” (’360 

Patent, Claims 1 and 18) / 

“means for detecting the state 

of at least one element of said 

scheduler whose state depends 

on which queue is selected by 

said scheduler for outputting a 

test cell” (’360 Patent, Claim 

24) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: detecting a state of 

an element 

Structure: module 110, 112, 

114, 115, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

126, 128, or 130 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: detecting a state of 

an element 

Structure: modules 110, 112, 

114 . . . to 130 using a 

programming language 

interface (PLI) as described in 

’360 patent, 12:11–41 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: detecting a state of 

an element of said scheduler 

Structure: module 110, 112, 

114, 115, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

126, 128, or 130. 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“means for requesting said 

scheduler model to pass the 

status of said element to said 

monitor” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 1) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Subject to § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: requesting said 

scheduler model to pass the 

status of said element to said 

monitor 

Structure: module 110, 112, 

114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

126, 128, or 130 

Subject to § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: requesting said 

scheduler model to pass the 

status of said element to said 

monitor 

Structure: modules 110, 112, 

114 . . . to 130 using a 

programming language 

interface (PLI) as described in 

’360 patent, 12:11–41 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: requesting said 

scheduler model to pass the 

status of said element to said 

monitor 

Structure: module 110, 112, 

114, 115, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

126, 128, or 130. 

“monitoring means for 

monitoring a parameter 

relating to the operation of said 

scheduler” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 3) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Subject to § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: monitoring a 

parameter relating to the 

operation of said scheduler 

Structure: module 110, 112, 

114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

126, 128, or 130 

Subject to § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: monitoring a 

parameter relating to the 

operation of said scheduler 

Structure: modules 110, 112, 

114 . . . to 130 using a 

programming language 

interface (PLI) as described in 

’360 patent, 12:11–41 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Function: monitoring a 

parameter relating to the 

operation of said scheduler 

Structure: module 110, 112, 

114, 115, 118, 120, 122, 124, 

126, 128, or 130 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“comparing means for 

comparing the detected state 

with a predetermined state for 

said element and for 

outputting the result of the 

comparison” (’360 Patent, 

Claim 1) / “comparison means 

for comparing the detected 

parameter with said expected 

parameter and for outputting 

the result of the comparison” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 18) / 

“means for detecting the state 

of an element of said 

scheduler at a plurality of 

different times and comparing 

the detected states with 

expected states and outputting 

the result of said comparison” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 21) / 

“means for detecting the state 

of an element of said 

scheduler at a plurality of 

different times and comparing 

the detected states with 

expected states and outputting 

the result of said comparison” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 24) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: comparing the 

detected state with a 

predetermined state for said 

element and for outputting the 

result of the comparison 

Structure: rule checker 132 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: comparing the 

detected state with a 

predetermined state for said 

element and for outputting the 

result of the comparison 

Structure: Indefinite 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: comparing the 

detected state with a 

predetermined state for said 

element and for outputting the 

result of the comparison 

Structure: rule checker 132 

with set of rules 134 
Term Plaintiff’s Proposed 

Construction 

Defendants’ Proposed 

Construction 

Court’s Final Construction 

“determining means for 

determining an expected value 

of said parameter” 

(’360 Patent, Claim 18) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: determining an 

expected value of said 

parameter 

Structure: operation(s) which 

apply one or more rules 

interrelating “the detected” 

state and the “expected value,” 

as explained, for example, at 

6:34-37, 6:45-58, and 9:12-

11:60 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: determining an 

expected value of said 

parameter 

Structure: Indefinite 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: determining an 

expected value of said 

parameter based on the 

detected state of said element 

Structure: None and thus 

indefinite for failure to 

disclose corresponding 

structure 

 
The Court did not construe any of the following terms because the Defendants exceeded the limit of 36 terms. 

-473, -478 Cases 

Term Plaintiff’s Proposed Construction Defendants’ Proposed Construction 

Entirety of claim 9 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 10 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 11 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 13 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 14 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 15 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 16 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 
Entirety of claim 17 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

Entirety of claim 18 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

Plain and ordinary meaning Indefinite 

-480, -481, -485, -486 Cases 

Term Plaintiff’s Proposed Construction Defendants’ Proposed Construction 

“element for recording whether a queue is 

empty or occupied” 

(’360 Patent, Claims 1, 5, 6, 7–9, 14–15, 

20, 25, 26, 30, 33–35, and 38) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

No construction required apart from 

finding this term is not subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, 6. 

Alternatively, if deemed subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, then, 

Function: recording whether a queue is 

empty or occupied. 

Structure: data storage within a 

scheduler, such as, for example, queue 

status register 165, 167, 201, or 203 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: recording whether a queue is 

empty or occupied 

Structure: queue status register 165, 167, 

201, or 203 

“an element for recording the [number of 

[data] cells/quantity of data] contained in 

a queue” 

(’360 Patent, Claims 

1, 9, 20, 26, 30, and 38) 

No construction required apart from 

finding this term is not subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Alternatively, if deemed subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, then, 

This term is subject to 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 

6 

Function: recording the [quantity of 

data/number of data cells] contained in a 

queue 
(Proposed by Defendants) Function: recording the 

[quantity of data / number of cells / 

number of data cells] contained in a 

queue; 

Structure: data storage within a 

scheduler, such as, for example, counter 

169, 205, or 207 

Structure: counter 169, 205, or 207 

 

“an element identifying a queue from 

which data is to be output” 

(’360 Patent, Claims 1, 26) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

No construction required apart from 

finding this term is not subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Alternatively, if deemed subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, then, 

Function: identifying a queue from which 

data is to be output 

Structure: data storage within a 

scheduler, such as, for example, pointer 

177, 179, 181, 183, 209, 211, 213, or 215 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: identifying a queue from 

which data is to be output 

 

Structure: pointer 177, 179, 181, 183, 

209, 211, 213, or 

215 

“an element [indicating / identifying] a 

group of queues from which data is to be 

output”1

(’360 patent, Claims 1, 5, 9, 14, 15, 20, 

26, 30, 33, 35, 38) 

(Proposed by Defendants) 

No construction required apart from 

finding this term is not subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. 

Alternatively, if deemed subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, then, 

Function: identifying a queue from which 

data is to be output 

This term is subject to 35 

U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 

Function: [identifying / indicating] a 

group of queues, from which data is to be 

output 

Structure: Indefinite 

 
1

 - Defendants briefed the term “an 

element [identifying/indicating] a group 

of queues from which data is to be output” 

as representative for claims 

Structure: priority selector 173 or 208