Opinion ID: 807368
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Verizon ’214 and ’542 Patents

Text: ActiveVideo argued that asserted claim 9 of the ’214 patent was anticipated by European Patent Application No. 0,721,253 A2 (EP253). ActiveVideo also argued that claim 1 of the ’542 patent was anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 5,319,455 (’455 patent) and the CoverGirl advertisement. 3 Before the case was submitted to the jury, the district court granted Verizon’s JMOL of no invalidity, determining that there was insufficient evidence for ActiveVideo’s anticipation defenses to reach the jury. With respect to the ’214 patent, the district court concluded that ActiveVideo’s expert failed to show that the EP253 reference disclosed a first or second indication or a first or second command for selecting anchor channels, as required by asserted claim 9. With respect to the ’542 patent, the district court found that ActiveVideo’s expert failed to show that the CoverGirl advertisement was enabled and failed to show that the ’455 patent disclosed “receiving, at said head end facility over a return path, a request” or “obtaining, at said head end facility over said return path, a selection request” as required by asserted claim 1. The district court did not err by preventing ActiveVideo’s anticipation defenses from reaching the jury. For the ’214 patent, ActiveVideo’s expert failed to explain, 3 The “CoverGirl” advertisement is contained in a video promoting ActiveVideo’s interactive television concept. J.A. 110003. 29 ACTIVEVIDEO v. VERIZON COMMUNICATION from EP253, how a user “would be able to ascertain that any given channel located to the right of another in the station index originated from a common broadcast provider.” See J.A. 273. That is, ActiveVideo’s expert failed to explain how EP253 discloses the required first anchor channel indication and a second multiplex channel indication when at least one multiplex channel exists that is associated with the anchor channel. ActiveVideo’s expert testified that the “ESPN” logo on EP253 figure 14A (reproduced below) constituted the “first indication” while the “ESPN2” logo, which is “pretty clearly branded and coming from ESPN” was the “second indication” corresponding to a multiplex channel associated with the ESPN anchor channel. J.A. 5678. J.A. 96077. EP253 Figure 14A does not, however, permit a user to identify an anchor channel or any associated multiplex channels either by similarity in logo “branding” or by spatial proximity. For example, channels 206 and 207 both show a similarly “branded” “ESPN” logo but there is no indication as to which one of them is the “anchor channel” and which is a “multiplex channel” ACTIVEVIDEO v. VERIZON COMMUNICATION 30 associated with an anchor channel. And, although “ESPN2” appears spatially to the right of “ESPN,” the same spatial orientation is true of unrelated channels, such as “E!” and “TNT.” The district court correctly concluded that Figure 14A in EP253 does not disclose the required first indication and second indication, and thus that no reasonable jury could conclude that EP253 anticipates ’214 patent claim 9. For the ’542 patent, the testimony provided by Ac- tiveVideo’s expert is conclusory and lacks sufficient technical detail. The expert provided no description of how the systems disclosed in the CoverGirl advertisement or the ’455 patent actually work. For example, the expert failed to explain what “nodes” are, whether or how they are related to a headend facility, or how any information is passed back and forth between a user and a “node” or headend facility. We agree with the district court that the testimony of ActiveVideo’s expert about these references was insufficient for a reasonable jury to find anticipation of ’542 patent claim 1.