Opinion ID: 788714
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Originating Processor and Originated Information

Text: 46 The parties dispute the construction of the term originating processor recited in the claims of the '960, '670, and '592 patents 5 and originated information recited in the claims of the '960, '670, '592, and '451 patents. 6 Claim 1 of the '960 patent, from which claim 15 ultimately depends, again is exemplary and states in pertinent part: 47 1. A system for transmitting originated information from one of a plurality of originating processors in an electronic mail system to at least one of a plurality of destination processors in the electronic mail system comprising: 48 at least one gateway switch in the electronic mail system, one of the at least one gateway switch receiving the originated information and storing the originated information prior to transmission of the originated information to the at least one of the plurality of destination processors; 49 a RF information transmission network for transmitting the originated information to at least one RF receiver which transfers the originated information to the at least one of the plurality of destination processors; 50 at least one interface switch, one of the at least one interface switch connecting at least one of the at least one gateway switch to the RF information transmission network and transmitting the originated information received from the gateway switch to the RF information transmission network; and wherein 51 the originated information is transmitted to the one interface switch by the one gateway switch in response to an address of the one interface switch added to the originated information at the one of the plurality of originating processors or by the electronic mail system and the originated information is transmitted from the one interface switch to the RF information transmission network with an address of the at least one of the plurality of destination processors to receive the originated information added at the originating processor, or by either the electronic mail system or the one interface switch.... 52 '960 patent, col. 49, ll. 2-38 (emphases added). 53 The district court construed originating processor as [a]ny one of the constituent processors in an electronic mail system that prepares data for transmission through the system. Claim Construction Order, slip op. at 5. The court construed originated information as [t]he message text of an electronic mail message. Id., slip op. at 6 (noting an exception for the term as used in a patent which is not disputed on appeal). 54 RIM argues that originating processor is correctly construed to mean a processor that initiates or starts the transmission of data through the system, thereby excluding any of the constituent processors in the system which subsequently handle the data. It argues that originated information is the electronic mail message generated by an originating processor. RIM argues that its constructions are supported by dictionary definitions of the term originating and originate which impose an initiating requirement on the claims. RIM argues that the '960 patent specification supports this construction, because it describes an originating processor as a processor at which an electronic mail message is composed by a person or inputted by a machine. 55 NTP responds that this dispute centers on whether an originating processor can include gateway switches. Before the district court, NTP urged that originating processor be construed to include not only that processor upon which the sender types the message, but also all of the constituent processors in an electronic mail system that run electronic mail programming to format and initiate transmission of electronic mail messages. NTP's Claim Construction Mem. at 37. NTP argues that RIM's proposed construction is erroneous because it ignores language in the written description specifying that a gateway switch can originate information, and thus would exclude embodiments in the written description. NTP argues that a construction which limited originating processor to only processors upon which senders actually type the electronic mail message is not required by RIM's dictionary definitions. 56 As we shall explain, we conclude that the district court erred in its claim construction of the term originating processor. The term originating processor is properly construed as a processor in an electronic mail system that initiates the transmission of a message into the system. We do not hold that the originating processor is always the processor on which text of the email message was created. As a practical matter this will probably be the case. However, there could be a situation where someone composes an email message on one processor, then perhaps transfers the message from the creating processor to the originating processor that initiates the message into the electronic mail system; e.g., by copying onto a disk. 57 Further, we conclude that the district court did not err in construing originated information as [t]he message text of an electronic mail message. RIM focuses its argument on the term originating processor. Indeed, RIM presents no independent argument that originated information means anything other than the text of an electronic mail message to be transmitted in the electronic mail system. We see no reason to disturb the district court's claim construction of the term originating information. 58 We begin with the language of the claims. See PSC Computer Prods., Inc. v. Foxconn Int'l, 355 F.3d 1353, 1359 (Fed.Cir.2004). Claim 1 of the '960 patent recites: 59 1. A system for transmitting originated information from one of a plurality of originating processors in an electronic mail system to at least one of a plurality of destination processors in the electronic mail system comprising: ... 60 at least one gateway switch in the electronic mail system ... 61 at least one interface switch .... 62 '960 patent, col. 49, ll. 2-19 (emphases added). Construing originating processor to mean the processor that is the origin of the email message text comports with the goal of the system — to move originated information from the processor where the email message text originated to the processor(s) where it is intended to be received. Moreover, that construction is consistent with the overall context of the claim language. Claim 1 of the '960 patent contains a number of limitations relating to devices that process data, including, inter alia: a plurality of originating processors, at least one gateway switch, and at least one interface switch. See '960 patent, col. 49, ll. 2-25. Nothing in the claim suggests that a plurality of originating processors defines a genus which includes the claimed gateway switch or interface switch as a species. Instead, these limitations are used as three separate, independent limitations to describe the various constituent components in an electronic mail system that prepares and transmits electronic mail messages. There is no antecedent basis in the claim language to signify that at least one gateway switch conceptually is contained within a plurality of originating processors. See Innova/Pure Water, Inc. v. Safari Water Filtration Sys., 381 F.3d 1111, 1119 (Fed.Cir.2004) (While not an absolute rule, all claim terms are presumed to have meaning in a claim.). 63 In addition, as claim 1 above recites, the originated information originates from the originating processor. '960 patent, col. 49, ll. 2-3. Thus, the plain language of the claims indicates that originating processor is not referring to every component that initiates data. Rather the originating processor is, more precisely, the processor that is the source of the originated information — the text of the electronic mail message. 64 Also, the claim language shows how a gateway switch is not included within the larger term originating processor, but is rather a separate component from an originating processor. That is because the originated information is transmitted from an originating processor to a gateway switch. Indeed, the originating processor and the gateway switch initiate different types of data. Originated information — the electronic mail message — originates with the originating processor. By contrast, the gateway switch is never described as being the origin of the originated information. Rather, it merely receives the originated information from the originating processor. See, e.g., id. at col. 49, ll. 8-9; '611 patent, col. 19, ll. 60-63, col. 47, ll. 52-54. A gateway switch may sometimes add or initiate address information such as an address of an interface switch to the originated information that it receives from the originating processor. See, e.g., '960 patent, col. 49, ll. 26-37. However, a gateway switch is not the origin of the originated information itself. According to the language of the claims, gateway switches are components that receive originated information from an originating processor and then sometimes append additional data to the information received from an originating processor. 65 The written description is consistent with this interpretation and reveals that two different types of information are originated and transmitted within the claimed invention. First, there is originated information. As the district court correctly held, originated information refers to the text of the electronic mail message being transmitted. One could analogize this to the contents of a physical letter one mails to a recipient via the postal system. Second, in the claimed invention there is also what one might call address information or destination information. This refers to an identifier of the intermediate components and/or the destination processor(s) to which the electronic message text should be delivered. See, e.g., '960 patent, col. 24, ll. 31-46 (discussing address of the interface switch and identification number of the RF receiver). Address information originated from a gateway switch or interface switch is never described as itself the originated information or the other originated information. Rather, it is described as separate information which is added to the originated information which came from an originating processor. See, e.g., id. at col. 21, ll. 54-56 (text notes that the address of the interface switch can be added to the information originating from the originating processor); id. at col. 22, ll. 24-26 (text notes that the destination address can be added to the information from the originating processor); id. at col. 26, ll. 39-41 (text notes adding information to the information from the originating processor); id. at col. 49, ll. 27-29 (claims describe adding address information to originated information); id. at col. 50, ll. 7-10 (text describes movement of both originated information and identification number in the RF transmission network); id. at col. 54, ll. 49-51 (text notes identification number added to the originated information). This address information can be analogized to the address contained on the outside of an envelope that one mails with the post office, as well as information added by the post office, such as a barcode, which may direct the envelope through the myriad routes in the postal system. Thus, just as one physically mails a letter with two types of information — the text of the actual letter itself within the envelope and the address information on the outside of the envelope — the claimed invention originates two types of information. 66 From the written description, one skilled in the art would understand an originating processor to refer to a processor where originated information — the electronic mail message text — is introduced into the electronic mail system. In some cases, this originating processor is the point at which some or all of the second type of information, the address information, is added. In other cases, after the originating processor sends the originated information to a gateway switch, the gateway switch then originates and appends additional address information onto the originated information. A user typing at the originating processor does need to provide at least some address destination information — for example, that the email message is intended for John Doe. See, e.g., id. at col. 24, ll. 29-30. However, the user need not know precisely through which switches the email message needs to travel within the system to get to John Doe (or even whether John Doe's destination processor is a wireless or wireline processor). In the most user friendly form of the invention, the user need only indicate the intended recipient, and the proper address information can be added to the text of the electronic mail message either by the originating processor itself or by later components in the electronic mail system, such as gateway switches and/or interface switches. See, e.g., id. at col. 24, ll. 25-30. This is analogous to how, in the postal system, one need only indicate a destination address, and the postal system sometimes adds barcode information to envelopes which help indicate through which routes within the postal network the letter needs to travel to get to the proper destination. 67 The term originating processor does not encompass every constituent processor that initiates data into the system. Originating processor refers more precisely to the processor that initiates the electronic message text into the system. It is correct to conclude that other components besides an originating processor originate information. For example, components such as the gateway switches originate some of the address information to get the electronic message from the originating processor to the proper destination processor(s). However, there is nothing in the written description to suggest that one skilled in the art would blur the distinction between a component such as a gateway switch that sometimes originates address information, and an originating processor, which is a separately labeled and separately claimed component than a gateway switch or an interface switch. 68 Referring specifically to the written description, Figure 1 of the '960 patent discloses a prior art electronic mail system in which the originating processor is depicted as the processor which originates the email message, which is separate and distinct from other constituent components such as gateway switches: NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE 69 The specification states that Figure 1 shows that [c]ommunications between an originating processor A-N, which may be any of the processors within the groups of associated processors # 1-# 3 or processor # N and a destination processor A-N are completed through the public switch telephone network 12 to one or more gateway switches ... 14. '960 patent, col. 2, ll. 23-28 (emphasis added). This passage explains that the electronic mail message originates from the originating processor and then moves to an associated gateway switch. Thus, the originating processor is not a generic term referring to all data-generating constituent processors in a system, but more precisely refers to a processor that is separate from the gateway switches. Moreover, the written description repeatedly refers to the originating processor where the electronic mail message text is generated. See, e.g., id. at col. 3, ll. 12-21 (Finally, the message or message text must be entered which is the information that is inputted by the person or machine which is originating the message at the originating processor A-N. Upon completion of the message text, the user ... enters a series of commands or keystrokes on the originating processor to transmit the message to the gateway switch.... (emphasis added)); id. at col. 19, ll. 29-30 (explaining how, in the claimed invention the originating processor might be associated with an icon driven display and a computer mouse for the user). There is no corresponding discussion of the electronic mail message text being generated with, or the use of an icon driven display with, a gateway or interface switch. 70 Components other than an originating processor can initiate data. The written description describes how, for example, the identification of the RF receiver 119 and the address of the interface switch may be implemented by the originating processor A-N of one of the computing systems # 1-# N, a gateway switch 14 or an interface switch 304 .... Id. at col. 24, ll. 42-46. This shows that three different components can initiate address information: (1) an originating processor A-N; (2) a gateway switch 14; or (3) an interface switch 304. However, simply because the originating processor is but one of three separate, differently named and labeled components that can serve as the initiator of address information, does not mean that the term originating processor covers all of these different components. If originating processor referred to all three components, then the specification would simply read the identification of the RF receiver 119 may be implemented by an originating processor. 71 The specification makes clear that it may take several processors in Campana's claimed invention to successfully initiate an electronic mail message. As Campana teaches in his written description, to initiate an electronic mail message, the message text must be entered, then the addresses of various interface switches and the receiving destination processor must be entered and appended to the message. See id. at col. 19, ll. 26-39. The written description also teaches that entering the addresses of the interface switches, RF receivers, and destination processors may be accomplished by various components, including the originating processor or a gateway switch. See id. at col. 21, ll. 54-56, 65-66 (noting that the address of the receiving interface switch may be added by the originating processor or a gateway switch); id. at col. 22, ll. 10-15, 24-26 (noting that the address of the destination processor may be added by the originating processor by an operator or a machine using the originating processor or the gateway switch). However, the mere fact that a constituent component may tack on destination address information to the originated information coming from the originating processor does not turn that constituent processor into an originating processor. Gateway switches are separate components from the originating processor that can also add address information after receiving the message text from the originating processor. This is why Campana asserts that the invention is user friendly because only a minimum amount of information ... must be provided to initiate the transmission of electronic mail from an originating processor to at least one destination processor. Id. at col. 19, ll. 20-25. 72 The written description further describes how either the originating processor, gateway switch, or interface switch can be used to add information needed to transmit the electronic mail message, such as addressing data. See id. at col. 22, ll. 24-26 (The address of the destination processor may also be added to the information originated by the originating processor by the gateway switch.). Figure 11 of the '960 patent visually demonstrates various steps by which the originating processor, gateway switch 14, and interface switch 304 could operate together to add address information to the text of the electronic mail message, i.e., the originated information: NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE 73 See '960 patent, col. 28, ll. 10-13 (Fig[ure] 11 summarizes electronic mail message entry methods for messages (information) originating from originating processors within an electronic mail system. (emphasis added)). The arrows show the flow of the originated information from the originating processor, the first processor in the system where the information is originated, to a gateway switch 14, and then to an interface switch 304. Campana describes the flow of data in the various entry methods. For example, in entry method 1 the originating processor itself adds the appropriate destination address data. Id. at col. 28, ll. 13-17. When the originated information then reaches a gateway switch 14, the gateway switch takes no action, because all of the address data necessary at that point has already been added by the originating processor. By contrast, in entry method 3, a gateway switch, after receiving the originated information from the originating processor, adds the wireless destination address. Id. at col. 28, ll. 24-29. Although under the various methods enumerated in Figure 11 either the originating processor, gateway switch, or interface switch may add address information to the electronic mail message, the gateway and interface switches do not initiate the message text of an electronic mail message and, thus, are not originating processors. 74 This shows how the originating processor merely refers to the first (initiating) processor of the originated information. A gateway switch is not an originating processor. While the gateway switch serves as an initiator of address information, as in entry methods 3, 4, and 5, a gateway switch only does this after it gets the originated information from the originating processor. Originating processor is not an umbrella term referring to all of the processors that add data into the system, but rather would be understood to one skilled in the art to be the first processor, or the initial source of the originated information or email message text. All three different components in Figure 11, an originating processor, a gateway switch, and an interface switch, are initiating address information. Originating processor refers to one of these components — the first processor, and not all three. Thus, the originating processor is the sole processor that initiates the transmission of the electronic mail message text into the electronic mail system and is separate from the gateway or interface switches.