Opinion ID: 615097
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Stealth's '269 Patent

Text: The '269 Patent, which issued to inventor David Baran on April 11, 1995, is entitled Method and Apparatus for the Remote Verification of the Operation of Electronic Devices by Standard Transmission Mediums. Stealth obtained a license to this patent in response to Absolute's assertion of patent infringement. The '269 Patent generally describes an invention that remotely monitors electronic devices by imbedding in such devices an agent that makes surreptitious calls to a central monitoring site. The invention has two fundamental purposes: (1) to monitor the performance of an electronic device remotely, and (2) to detect the misuse of software, such as when it is installed on multiple computers without a license. Four independent claims of the '269 Patent are at issue on appeal: claims 11, 12, 25, and 29. Claims 12 and 25 contain the term semi-random rate. Representative claim 12 recites: 12. A remote site performance monitoring system for inclusion in an electrical apparatus to monitor and collect performance data thereof during operation surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus for transmitting said collected performance data to a central site means for comparing the received collected performance data with expected performance data for electrical apparatus of the type in which said remote site performance monitoring system has been added, said remote site system comprising:    transmission means for initiating, at a semi-random rate, the transmission of the message packet from the formatting means to the central site means of the system surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus. '269 Patent col.9 l.59-col.10. l.12 (emphasis added). This claim requires that the system have a transmission means for sending a message packet to a central site means, and the transmission must occur at a semi-random rate. The Summary of the Invention of the '269 Patent states that [t]he call initiation is preferentially triggered at a carefully controlled semi-random rate, perhaps once a week. Id. col.2 ll.57-59. Finally, the last two claims at issue on appeal, claims 11 and 29 of the '269 Patent, contain the terms unique usage agreement information and said terms of said usage agreement imbedded in said software. Claim 11 recites: 11. A method for monitoring software usage of owner-leased proprietary software residing in at least one remote computer surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer to detect violations of software usage agreements surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer at a central site means, said method comprising the steps of: a. imbedding unique usage agreement information that is transparent to the user in each original copy of said owner-leased proprietary software; b. each of said at least one remote computers monitoring the use of said software of step a. surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer; c. each of said at least one remote computers automatically, at various times, reporting said terms of said usage agreement imbedded in said software and the use of said software by said remote computer monitored in step b. to said central site means surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer;    '269 Patent col.9 ll.27-58 (emphasis added). This claim requires the remote computer to send certain usage agreement information to a central site, though the parties dispute whether that information can be just the serial number of a license agreement, or whether it must include the actual terms and provisions of the license agreement.