Opinion ID: 4154236
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: “Reporting The Discovered Vulnerabilities”

Text: At trial, TVIIM argued that Program Updates in- fringes “reporting the discovered vulnerabilities” by providing a “risk rating” to users prior to installation, i.e., whether a particular update is “critical” or simply “recommended.” When pressed about what vulnerability information is provided to users by Program Updates, TVIIM’s expert Dr. Yu responded, “[n]othing more than just a risk rating.” J.A. 2046. In other words, although Program Updates reports the risk level to the user, it does not report any specific information on vulnerabilities. Dr. Rubin testified that such a risk rating does not constitute “reporting the discovered vulnerabilities,” because Program Updates does not report “something like a [Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures] number or a specific description of the vulnerability.” J.A. 2455. Program Updates will not report any detected vulnerability to a user if no update is available. We find this testimony to be substantial evidence supporting the jury’s non-infringement verdict. 12 TVIIM, LLC v. MCAFEE, INC. Regarding invalidity for anticipation, the record demonstrates that unlike Program Updates, HostGUARD and S3 provide users with specific reports on detected vulnerabilities. See, e.g., J.A. 2478 (Dr. Rubin) (“So here we see the actual vulnerability is described” [in S3]); J.A. 3796 (HostGUARD brochure describing “reports [that] are written in plain English and are formatted to effectively communicate the results of the security assessment”); J.A. 3841–78 (examples of “Vulnerability Descriptions” in S3). 1 Program Updates, by contrast, does not provide any detailed vulnerability descriptions. J.A. 2002, 2046, 2455. Given this evidence presented, we find that the jury verdict of invalidity is supported by substantial evidence. As with the other two terms, TVIIM has not persuad- ed us that a jury could not arrive at a non-infringement and invalidity verdict based on a single construction of “reporting the discovered vulnerabilities.” Because substantial evidence supports the jury’s verdicts, the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying TVIIM’s motion for a new trial. 2. Any Potential Error In Claim Construction Was Harmless On appeal, TVIIM concedes that substantial evidence supports the jury’s finding for either non-infringement or invalidity but argues it does not support both. Opening Br. at 73 (“[A]ny single ordinary meaning construction could support either infringement or invalidity.”) (emphasis omitted); see also J.A. 2638 (TVIIM’s counsel stating at 1 TVIIM asserts that the jury and district court improperly construed “vulnerabilities” to include “discrepancies.” But the district court specifically found that “the intrinsic evidence does not clearly exclude ‘discrepancies’ from the scope of the claim term ‘vulnerability.’” J.A. 634. TVIIM did not appeal that construction. TVIIM, LLC v. MCAFEE, INC. 13 trial, “I think there’s questions of fact with respect to infringement.”). Thus, by TVIIM’s own admission, the jury’s invalidity determination could be proper under “any single ordinary meaning construction.” Opening Br. 73. This concession is determinative, because even if we were to find an inconsistent verdict, substantial evidence under “any” construction supports the jury’s verdict of invalidity. Consequently, any potential error by the jury regarding non-infringement was harmless. Cf. Senju Pharm. Co. v. Lupin Ltd., 780 F.3d 1337, 1353 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (affirming the district court’s invalidity finding and therefore not reaching non-infringement arguments); MobileMedia Ideas LLC v. Apple Inc., 780 F.3d 1159, 1173 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (holding that because the patent was invalid, the court “need not reach Apple’s argument that its accused iPhones do not infringe”).