Opinion ID: 2779923
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Patents at Issue

Text: This appeal involves U.S. Patent Nos. 7,706,830 (“’830 patent”), 8,009,636 (“’636 patent”), 7,502,406 (“’406 patent”), 7,706,332 (“’332 patent”), and 7,616,970 (“’970 patent”). Throughout this case, the patents have been grouped as follows: (1) the Power Ramp-Up Patents (the ‘830 and ’636 patents), (2) the Power Control Patents (the ’406 and ’332 patents), and (3) the Dual Mode Patent (the ’970 patent). We address each patent group below.
The Power Ramp-Up Patents address the way a sub- scriber unit establishes a connection with a base station in order to initiate a communication such as a voice call. In particular, these patents describe a subscriber unit that, in order to avoid unnecessary power usage and minimize interference with other connections, gradually ramps up the power level of its transmissions before initiating a call. See ’830 patent col. 6 ll. 55–67. The subscriber unit starts transmitting at a low power level 1 We provided a more detailed description of this technology in InterDigital Commc’ns, LLC v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, 690 F.3d 1318, 1320–21 (Fed. Cir. 2012), an appeal involving related patents and technology. 4 INTERDIGITAL v. ITC and then repeatedly sends transmissions—called “short codes”—at increasing power levels until the base station detects the transmissions and sends back an acknowledgement to the subscriber unit. Id. The transmissions are called “short codes” because they are shorter than a regular length code. Id. col. 7 ll. 40–41. Once the acknowledgement is received, a substantive communication such as a voice call can be initiated. Id. col. 6 ll. 63– 67. InterDigital asserts independent claim 1 and dependent claims 2, 3, and 5 of the ’830 patent and independent claim 1 and dependent claims 2, 4, and 6–8 of the ’636 patent. Claim 1 of the ’830 patent, which is representative for purposes of this appeal, provides in relevant part: 1. A wireless code division multiple access (CDMA) subscriber unit comprising: a transmitter configured such that, when the subscriber unit is first accessing a CDMA network and wants to establish communi- cations with a base station associated with the network over a communication channel to be indicated by the base station, the transmitter successively sends transmis- sions prior to the subscriber unit receiving from the base station an indication that at least one of the successively sent transmis- sions has been detected by the base station; wherein each of the successively sent trans- missions is produced using a sequence of chips, wherein the sequence of chips is not used to increase bandwidth; .... wherein each of the successively sent trans- missions is shorter than the message; INTERDIGITAL v. ITC 5 .... Id. col. 10 l. 54–col. 11 l. 16 (emphases added).
The Power Control Patents relate to how the sub- scriber unit and the base station adjust their transmission power level after a connection is established. See ’406 patent col. 5 ll. 46–66. In particular, the patents describe sending messages back and forth indicating whether the power level should be increased or decreased. Id. These messages are known as “adaptive,” id. col. 2 ll. 29–30, or “automatic power control” information (“APC information”), id. col. 5 ll. 48–50. For the ’406 patent, InterDigital asserts dependent claims 6, 13, 20, and 26 (which depend, respectively, from independent claims 1, 7, 15, and 21) and independent claim 29. For the ’332 patent, InterDigital asserts claims 2–4, 7–11, 14, 22–24 and 27. Claims 1 and 7 of the ’406 patent, which InterDigital asserts are representative for present purposes, provide: 1. A method for controlling transmission pow- er levels of a code division multiple access (CDMA) subscriber unit, the method comprising: receiving by the subscriber unit a power con- trol bit on a downlink control channel, the power control bit indicating either an in- crease or decrease in transmission power level; transmitting a plurality of channels by the subscriber unit, the plurality of channels including a traffic channel and a reverse control channel; in response to the received power control bit, adjusting a transmission power level of both the traffic channel and the reverse 6 INTERDIGITAL v. ITC control channel, wherein the transmission power level of the traffic channel and the reverse control channel are different; and transmitting the traffic channel and the re- verse control channel at their respective ad- justed transmit power levels. ’406 patent col. 14 l. 57–col. 15 l. 9 (emphases added). 7. A method for controlling transmission pow- er levels of a code division multiple access (CDMA) subscriber unit, the method comprising: receiving by the subscriber unit a series of power control bits on a downlink channel, each power control bit indicating either an increase or decrease in transmission power level; transmitting a plurality of channels by the subscriber unit, the plurality of channels including a traffic channel and a reverse control channel; adjusting a transmission power level of both the traffic channel and the reverse control channel in response to the same bits in the received series of power control bits, where- in the transmission power level of the traf- fic channel and the reverse control channel are different; and transmitting the traffic channel and the re- verse control channel at their respective ad- justed transmit power levels. Id. col. 15 ll. 28–45 (emphases added).
The Dual Mode Patent relates generally to subscriber units that can switch between different types of networks, INTERDIGITAL v. ITC 7 such as CDMA cellular networks and local wireless networks, to transfer data. ’970 patent abstract. According to InterDigital, the patented innovation describes a way for the subscriber unit itself to make the CDMA communication channels available for use rather than waiting for the base station to allocate a channel. For the Dual Mode Patent, InterDigital asserts independent claim 1 and dependent claims 2–9. Claim 1 states in relevant part: 1. A subscriber unit comprising: a cellular transceiver configured to communi- cate with a cellular network via a cellular layered communication protocol; .... wherein the cellular layered communication protocol includes a plurality of layers above a physical layer, and a plurality of physical layer channels are available for assignment for communication with the cellular net- work and a communication session above the physical layer is maintained when all assigned physical layer channels have been released. Id. col. 11 ll. 5–24 (emphasis added).