Opinion ID: 211311
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Disputed Limitations

Text: 16 On the merits, the parties dispute the meaning of two related limitations in the '982 patent, distributing and displaying a combined order book to a trader. Independent claim 9 recites both limitations: 17 9. A data processing method for providing trading information to traders in a security or commodity from two or more alternative trading systems, comprising the steps of: 18 receiving order book information from each participating alternative trading system in order book information protocols native to the particular alternative trading system; 19 converting the information to a common system order book protocol; 20 integrating the order book information from each alternative trading system into a single order book; 21 distributing the combined order book to the traders in the common system order book protocol; and 22 displaying said combined order book to the traders. 23 '982 patent, col. 14, ll. 1-14 (emphasis added). The district court construed the disputed limitations during a Markman hearing without issuing a formal claim construction order. Instead, the district court stated its claim construction from the bench at the close of the hearing. A district court retains discretion to rule in this manner, but in this instance the trial court's oral recitation provides a very sparse explanation of the findings and reasoning supporting the claim construction. 24 Regarding the distributing limitation, the district court concluded that it simply means distributing the combined order book — that means in terms of the specification the consolidated order book — pertaining to all orders from all ECN members. Claim Construction Order at 442-43. In other words, the distributing limitation requires the distribution of the whole combined order book to the trader. The district court similarly construed the displaying limitation, concluding the system must display the whole combined order book for the trader. Upon review, the district court's interpretation of the distributing and displaying limitations conflicts with the plain meaning of claim 9 and excludes embodiments disclosed in the specification. 25 According to its preamble, claim 9 provid[es] trading information to traders in a security or commodity  rather than all securities or commodities. '982 patent, col. 14, ll. 1-2 (emphasis added). By selecting the word a instead of all, the Applicant set forth a method wherein the traders may request and receive information for only a subset of the securities (i.e., one or more). See KCJ Corp. v. Kinetic Concepts, Inc., 223 F.3d 1351, 1356 (Fed.Cir. 2000) (the word a generally means one or more in open-ended claims). Thus, the language of the claim itself does not require the system to distribute or display the whole combined order book. 26 Furthermore, the specification discloses embodiments that distribute and display information for only a subset of the combined order book. As an example, the specification describes one embodiment in which 27 the CCS 100 collects orders from each ECN, (ECN150 and ECN251) and electronic exchanges (NASDAQ 52), distributes a composite order book to the customers according to each customer's memberships in the ECNs and rights to use an electronic exchange. Thus customer 10 may only receive a subset of the complete order book compiled by the CCS 100 corresponding to where the customer 10 is permissioned. 28 '982 patent, col. 6, ll. 59-66 (emphasis added). 1 According to this embodiment the customer only receives a subset of the combined/complete order book from the system. Thus, this embodiment must also make the system capable of distributing less than the whole combined order book to the customer — i.e., a subset of the combined order book. 29 The specification also discloses an embodiment in which bid and offer prices for Dell, a single security, are displayed on a market data screen: 30 Fig. 4 depicts a typical market data screen 250 of the present invention. Such screens can be customized as to data or order to conform to the customer's trading style.... The security under review is Dell Computer Corp. It was elected by inserting its ticker symbol DELL in space 252. 31 '982 patent, col. 8, ll. 47-54. This embodiment is further described in reference to Figure 5: 32 FIG. 5 shows pricing data that would be available to a customer of the present invention. Here, space 251 has been checked on screen 280 and ECN information integrated into the display. Screen 280 shows not only NASDAQ Level II data but also the full order book for the following three ECNs: Instinet, Island and Strike. For these ECN's, there are multiple bids and offers available for DELL, as opposed to just the best bid and offer.... Screen 280, thus, offers access to a greater amount of pricing information (thus greater liquidity), consolidated in one display. Thus, the entire order books of all ECN members and the market makers' bids and offers are consolidated into a single informative screen for any particular security. This additionally provides the customer with the ability to take advantage of price variations in a rapidly changing environment. 33 Id. at col. 9, ll. 9-25. Hence, the specification discloses embodiments that distribute and display information for only a subset of the securities (e.g., one in the embodiment of Figures 4 and 5) in the combined order book. 34 Reading the claim language and these embodiments in the specification, one of ordinary skill in this art would not limit the distributing and displaying limitations in the manner suggested by the district court. See Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1313 (Fed.Cir.2005) ( en banc ) (Importantly, the person of ordinary skill in the art is deemed to read the claim term not only in the context of the particular claim in which the disputed term appears, but in the context of the entire patent, including the specification.). Rather, one of ordinary skill in the art would construe the distributing and displaying limitations as covering an embodiment that distributes and displays information for only a subset of the combined order book. 35 For at least these reasons, this court sets aside the district court's claim construction. Because the final judgment orders are premised on the flawed claim construction, they too must be set aside. The case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. COSTS 36 Each party shall bear its own costs.