Opinion ID: 182125
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Registration System and Mode Switching Means

Text: In the alternative, the district court granted JMOL of non-infringement because of Product Activation's failure to incorporate a registration system or mode switching means using the following constructions: Mode switching Means plus function. Function: means to permit the digital data or software to run in a use mode if the locally generated licensee unique ID matches with the remotely generated licensee unique ID. and Structure: program code which performs a comparison of two numbers or a comparator and equivalents thereof. Uniloc I Claim Construction, 447 F.Supp.2d at 198 (synonyms in the claim construction not relevant to the claim at issue are removed for simplicity). Registration A system that allows digital system data or software to run in a use mode on a platform if and only if an appropriate licensing procedure has been followed. Id. at 202. Use mode A mode that allows full use of the digital data or software in accordance with the license. Id. at 196. These constructions are undisputed on appeal. It is also undisputed that the relevant license in the definition of use mode is the EULA, to which the user agrees prior to initiation of Product Activation in the accused product. The crux of the question is whether the use of the accused products before Product Activation constitutes full use in accordance with the EULA. Microsoft argues that the legal licensing occurred at the time the EULA was accepted by the user, and that whatever use this permitted was full use in accordance with the license. In other words, because the terms of the EULA only give the user the right to use the accused products with certain temporal and functional restrictions, such restricted use is full use under the terms of the EULA, and fulfill[s] the seller's/licensor's obligations in relation to the sale or license of the right to execute the digital data or software in the use mode. '216 patent col. 2 ll.42-44. Microsoft contrasts its system with that disclosed in the '216 patent, which it says is limited to systems in which legal licensing and registration occur concurrently. The district court agreed with Microsoft, holding that once the user agrees to the EULA, the user becomes a licensee, and can use the software in accordance with the terms of the license, and with the provided functionality . . . . Activation itself simply opens additional doors which were previously locked to the licensee. Uniloc II, 640 F.Supp.2d at 175-77. Microsoft's argument ultimately fails because it rests on the false factual premise that the functionality during the grace period between the EULA and Product Activation satisfies Microsoft's obligations under the EULA. This factual premise is false for three reasons. First, the EULA accompanying Microsoft Office states: Mandatory Activation. You may not be able to exercise Your rights to the Software Product under this EULA after a finite number of product launches unless You activate Your copy of the Software Product in the manner described during the launch sequence. This sentence indicates that rights . . . under this EULA are restricted unless the product is activated, and do not encompass some abstract right to full functionality. Consistently, the Windows EULA, in a clause discussing Mandatory Activation notes that [t]he license rights granted under this EULA are limited to the first thirty (30) days after you first install the Product unless you supply information required to activate your licensed copy. These license rights granted under this EULA are rights that had already been defined by the EULA without temporal or functional restrictions: You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Product on a single computer, subject only to limitations on the number of processors and computers that may use the program. Second, both the Windows license (Microsoft grants you the following rights provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this EULA) and the Office license (The license rights described in this Section are subject to all other terms and conditions of this EULA) are conditional. Both also note that Product Activation is [m]andatory. Thus, unless the user activates the product, she is not entitled to the rights granted by the EULA. Finally, Klausner testified that unless the accused products are activated, they cannot receive product updates or upgrades. However, the Windows EULA allows a user to install updates, supplements, add-on components, or Internet-based services components, of the Product that Microsoft may provide to you or make available to you after the date you obtain your initial copy of the Product. Thus, in order to have full use . . . in accordance with the license, the user must have access to these upgrades. This only occurs upon activation. This court thus concludes that use during the grace period after agreement to the EULA and before Product Activation in the accused product does not constitute full use in accordance with the EULA. It is undisputed that Product Activation lifts all the grace period restrictions if and only if the information entered indicates a legitimate copy of Office or Windows. Moreover, the '216 patent is not limited to the situation where activation and licensing are concurrent. In the preferred embodiment shown in Figures 2a-c, the registration system requires the user to view the license and to continue with the registration, far upstream of the activation. Until the user inputs confirmed payment details and plugs in a valid registration number, only the demo version of the software will run. Once the user performs these steps, the registration system switches the software into the full version. '216 patent, Figs. 2a-c. For the above reasons, the jury had substantial evidence to find that Microsoft's Product Activation included a registration system and mode switching means, and thus the district court erred in granting JMOL of noninfringement on the basis of this limitation.