Opinion ID: 4557271
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: By HPE

Text: A “direct infringement claim turn[s] on ‘who made’ the copies[.]” Fox Broad. Co. v. Dish Network L.L.C., 747 F.3d 1060, 1067 (9th Cir. 2014) (quoting Cartoon Network LP, LLLP v. CSC Holdings, Inc., 536 F.3d 121, 130 (2d Cir. 2008)) (emphasis in original). Oracle must “show causation (also referred to as ‘volitional conduct’) by the defendant.” Perfect 10, Inc. v. Giganews, Inc., 847 F.3d 657, 666 (9th Cir. 2017), cert denied, 138 S. Ct. 504 (2017). This requires conduct by the defendant “that can reasonably be described as the direct cause of the infringement.” Id. (citation omitted) (emphasis in original). Relying on Jensen’s testimony, HPE avers that some entity other than it—Oracle, the customer, or some unknown third party—could have installed patches for its direct support customers. Jensen’s testimony, however, could not foreclose that HPE installed patches. Indeed, he testified that when the data indicated that a patch was applied to a server, it “could mean” that a customer updated the patch, a customer-hired third party did it, or—critically—that HPE applied the patch if HPE had the responsibility to do so. HPE evades and the district court failed to acknowledge this third scenario, which plainly goes to causation by HPE. 11 HPE further contends that Oracle cannot prove causation because Hicks did not know who performed any patch installations. Hicks, however, relied on the fact that HPE supported the servers identified in HPE’s data and that 11 We reject Oracle’s assertion that Jensen’s testimony suffices to award summary judgment for it. Although Oracle cross moved for summary judgment on its infringement claims, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to HPE. At the very least, the testimony creates a dispute of material fact. ORACLE AMERICA V. HEWLETT PACKARD ENTER. 21 customers specifically paid HPE to support their Solaris software to conclude that HPE made installations. We see no reason why a reasonable jury could not rely on these same circumstances. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Oracle, a reasonable jury could find that HPE performed patch installations for direct customers. Thus, summary judgment was improper on the direct infringement claims concerning non-Symantec customers.