Sun Microsystems, Inc. v. Network Appliance, Inc. (591 F. Supp. 2d 1069, 2008)

Citations

591 F. Supp. 2d 1069

Full opinion text

ORDER CONSTRUING CLAIM TERMS OF THE '720 AND '417 PATENTS

ELIZABETH D. LAPORTE, United States Magistrate Judge.

On November 24, 2008, the Court held a hearing to construe the disputed terms of United States Patent Numbers 7,318,720 (the “'720 patent”) and 6,868,417 (the “'417 patent”) (collectively, the “NetApp patents”) pursuant to Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996). Prior to the hearing, the parties stipulated to construction of the disputed term of United States Patent Number 7,107,385 (the “'385 patent”), as reflected in their November 21, 2008, letter to the Court (docket no. 103). Pursuant to Court order, the parties filed additional briefs following the hearing. Without leave of Court or stipulation, Sun submitted a separate letter brief dated December 3, 2008, concerning the construction of “inode” in the '417 patent (docket no. 109). NetApp objected to the letter as procedurally improper and misstating the record (docket no. 111). The Court hereby grants the motion to strike Sun’s letter brief (docket no. 109) pursuant to Civil Local Rule 7-3(d).

The procedural history of this action is summarized in the December 22, 2008 Order, 2008 WL 5384081, construing the Sun patents. Having read the papers and considered the arguments of counsel and the relevant legal authority, the Court hereby rules as follows.

I. LEGAL STANDARD

In construing claims, the court must begin with an examination of the claim language itself. The terms used in the claims are generally given their “ordinary and customary meaning.” See Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1312-13 (Fed.Cir.2005); see also Renishaw PLC v. Marposs Societa’ per Azioni, 158 F.3d 1243, 1248 (Fed.Cir.1998) (“The claims define the scope of the right to exclude; the claim construction inquiry, therefore, begins and ends in all cases with the actual words of the claim.”). This ordinary and customary meaning “is the meaning that the terms would have to a person of ordinary skill in the art in question at the time of the invention .... ” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1313. A patentee is presumed to have intended the ordinary meaning of a claim term in the absence of an express intent to the contrary. York Products, Inc. v. Central Tractor Farm & Family Ctr., 99 F.3d 1568, 1572 (Fed.Cir.1996).

Generally speaking, the words in a claim are to be interpreted “in light of the intrinsic evidence of record, including the written description, the drawings, and the prosecution history, if in evidence.” Teleflex, Inc. v. Ficosa North Am. Corp., 299 F.3d 1313, 1324-25 (Fed.Cir.2002) (citations omitted); see also Medrad, Inc. v. MRI Devices Corp., 401 F.3d 1313, 1319 (Fed.Cir.2005) (court looks at “the ordinary meaning in the context of the written description and the prosecution history”). “Such intrinsic evidence is the most significant source of the legally operative meaning of disputed claim language.” Vitronics Corp. v. Conceptronic, Inc., 90 F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed.Cir.1996).

With regard to the intrinsic evidence, the court’s examination begins, first, with the claim language. See id. Specifically, “the context in which a term is used in the asserted claim can be highly instructive.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1314. As part of that context, the court may also consider the other patent claims, both asserted and unasserted. Id. For example, as claim terms are normally used consistently throughout a patent, the usage of a term in one claim may illuminate the meaning of the same term in other claims. Id. The court may also consider differences between claims as a guide to understanding the meaning of particular claim terms. Id.

Second, the claims “must [also] be read in view of the specification, of which they are a part.” Id. at 1315. When the specification reveals a special definition given to a claim term by the patentee that differs from the meaning it would otherwise possess, the inventor’s lexicography governs. Id. at 1316. Indeed, the specification is to be viewed as the “best source” for understanding a technical term, informed as needed by the prosecution history. Id. at 1315. As the Federal Circuit stated in Phillips, the specification is “the single best guide to the meaning of a disputed term,” and “acts as a dictionary when it expressly defines terms used in the claims or when it defines terms by implication.” 415 F.3d at 1321.

Limitations from the specification, however, such as from the preferred embodiment, cannot be read into the claims absent a clear intention by the patentee to do. Altiris v. Symantec Corp., 318 F.3d 1363, 1372 (Fed.Cir.2003) (“resort to the rest of the specification to define a claim term is only appropriate in limited circumstances”); Teleflex, 299 F.3d at 1326 (“The claims must be read in view of the specification, but limitations from the specification are not to be read into the claims.”) (citations omitted); CCS Fitness, Inc. v. Brunswick Corp., 288 F.3d 1359, 1366 (Fed.Cir.2002) (“a patentee need not describe in the specification every conceivable and possible future embodiment of his invention”).

“[TJhere is sometimes a fine line between reading a claim in light of the specification, and reading a limitation into the claim from the specification_ [Attempting to resolve that problem in the context of the particular patent is likely to capture the scope of the actual invention more accurately than either strictly limiting the scope of the claims to the embodiments disclosed in the specification or divorcing the claim language from the specification.” Decisioning.com, Inc. v. Federated Dept. Stores, Inc., 527 F.3d 1300, 1307-08 (Fed.Cir.2008) (quoting Comark Comm’ns, Inc. v. Harris Corp., 156 F.3d 1182, 1186 (Fed.Cir.1998)). There is therefore “no magic formula or catechism for conducting claim construction,” and the court must “read the specification in light of its purposes in order to determine whether the patentee is setting out specific examples of the invention to accomplish those goals, or whether the patentee instead intends for the claims and the embodiments in the specification to be strictly coextensive.” Id. (internal citations omitted).

Finally, as part of the intrinsic evidence analysis, the court “should also consider the patent’s prosecution history, if it is in evidence.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1317. The court should take into account, however, that the prosecution history “often lacks the clarity of the specification” and thus is of limited use for claim construction purposes. Id.

In most cases, claims can be resolved based on intrinsic evidence. See Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1583. Only if an analysis of the intrinsic evidence fails to resolve any ambiguity in the claim language may the court then rely on extrinsic evidence, such as expert and inventor testimony, dictionaries, and learned treatises. See Vitronics, 90 F.3d at 1583 (“In those cases where the public record unambiguously describes the scope of the patented invention, reliance on any extrinsic evidence is improper”). “Within the class of extrinsic evidence, the court has observed that dictionaries and treatises can be useful in claim construction.” Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1318. While expert testimony can be useful to a court for a variety of purposes, conelusory assertions by experts are not useful to a court. Id. The court generally views extrinsic evidence as less reliable than the patent and its prosecution history in determining how to read claim terms, even if though consideration is within the court’s sound discretion. See id. at 1318-19.

II. DISCUSSION

The parties dispute four terms, two in each of the NetApp patents: (1) “in-creas[ed/ing] a number of persistent consistency point images” and (2) “file system information (fsinfo) block” in the '720 patent; and (3) “storage layer underlying the block and file level servers” and (4) “mode operations”/ “the mode layer operations” in the '417 patent.

A. The'720 Patent

The claimed invention “relates to file systems and, more specifically, to a technique for increasing the number of persistent consistency point images of a file system.” '720 patent, col. 1:7-9 (Field of the Invention). The Abstract states:

An on-disk storage arrangement increases the number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) that may be maintained for a volume of a storage system. The on-disk storage arrangement comprises a novel volume information (volinfo) block representing a root of the volume; the volinfo block is stored at predefined locations on disk and comprises various system wide configuration data. The volinfo block further comprises a data structure configured to provide a level of indirection that increases the number of PCPIs maintainable by a file system executing on the storage system. To that end, the data structure may be organized as an array of pointers, wherein each pointer references a block containing a snapshot root, thereby enabling efficient access to each PCPI maintained by the file system.

'720 patent, Abstract.

1. “increas[ed/ing] a number of persistent consistency point images”

Sun disputes NetApp’s contention that this term is not a claim limitation, and contends that this claim term is indefinite because it does not sufficiently inform the public of the bounds of the protected invention.

The disputed term appears in independent claims 1, 11, 18 and 19 of the '720 patent, which state:

1. A method for increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) maintained for a volume of a storage system, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a file system information (fsinfo) block associated with an active file system executing on the storage system;

providing one or more PCPI fsinfo blocks, each PCPI fsinfo block associated with a PCPI; and providing a volume information (vol-info) block at a predetermined location on disk of the storage system, the volinfo block comprising a plurality of pointers configured to reference the fsinfo and PCPI fsinfo blocks.

11. A system adapted to maintain an increased, number of persistent consistency point images (PCPI) for a volume of a storage system, the system comprising:

at least one storage device adapted to store a volume information (volinfo) block at a predefined location, the storage device further adapted to store a plurality of file system information (fsinfo) blocks referenced by the volinfo block.

18. Apparatus for increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) maintained for a volume of a storage system, the apparatus comprising:

means for providing a file system information (fsinfo) block associated with an active file system executing on the storage system;

means for providing one or more PCPI fsinfo blocks, each PCPI fsinfo block associated with a PCPI; and means for providing a volume information (volinfo) block at a predetermined location on disk of the storage system, the volinfo block comprising a plurality of pointers configured to reference the fsinfo and PCPI fsinfo blocks.

19. A computer readable medium, including program instructions executing on a storage system, for increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) maintained for a volume of the storage system, the computer readable medium including program instructions for:

providing a file system information (fsinfo) block associated with an active file system executing on the storage system;

'720 patent, col. 13:59-14:5; 14:32-39; 14:56-15:5 (emphasis added).

a. Preamble

First, Sun argues that the phrase “increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs),” which appears in the preamble of claim 1, is a claim limitation. '720 patent, col. 13:59-61. “If the claim preamble, when read in the context of the entire claim, recites limitations of the claim, or, if the claim preamble is ‘necessary to give life, meaning, and vitality’ to the claim, then the claim preamble should be construed as if in the balance of the claim.” Pitney Bowes, Inc. v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 182 F.3d 1298, 1305 (Fed.Cir.1999) (citation omitted). “Indeed, when discussing the ‘claim’ in such a circumstance, there is no meaningful distinction to be drawn between the claim preamble and the rest of the claim, for only together do they comprise the ‘claim.’ If, however, the body of the claim fully and intrinsically sets forth the complete invention, including all of its limitations, and the preamble offers no distinct definition of any of the claimed invention’s limitations, but rather merely states, for example, the purpose or intended use of the invention, then the preamble is of no significance to claim construction because it cannot be said to constitute or explain a claim limitation.” Id. A preamble gives meaning to the claim especially where claim terms in the body of the claim rely upon and derive antecedent basis from it. Eaton Corp. v. Rockwell Int’l Corp., 323 F.3d 1332, 1339 (Fed.Cir.2003) (claim preamble limited the claimed invention where the preamble recited a particular sequence of events that was not defined elsewhere in the claim).

Sun contends that the preamble of claim 1 defines the term PCPI. This term is then used in the body of the claim, which recites structure in the form of PCPI fsinfo blocks. '720 patent, col. 13:66-67. Sun argues that the preamble provides the only antecedent basis for the term PCPI used in the rest of the claim, and the meaning of this structure would be incomprehensible without the definition provided in the preamble. Sun concludes that for this reason alone, the preamble must be treated as a limitation. See Pitney Bowes, 182 F.3d at 1306 (the preamble statement “is intimately meshed with the ensuing language in the claim”).

Citing Pitney Bowes, NetApp responds that the preamble phrase is only an introductory statement of purpose or objective for the claimed invention to explain the way in which it was intended to improve on the prior art. 182 F.3d at 1305. Ne-tApp contends that the preamble language in the '720 patent is always preceded by language that calls for a statement of purpose, i.e., increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs): “a method for [statement of purpose],” “a system adapted to [statement of purpose],” “apparatus for [statement of purpose],” or “a computer readable medium ... for [statement of purpose].” '720 patent at claim 1,11,18 & 19.

NetApp also argues that the preamble is not necessary to define or provide context for the term PCPI fsinfo block: “The '720 patent claims at issue never refer to ‘said PCPIs’ (the classic language in patent claims for referring to an antecedent), the PCPI fsinfo block is initially introduced in the body of the claim (‘providing one or more PCPI fsinfo blocks’), and the preamble does not contain a description of any structural characteristics of PCPIs.” Ne-tApp Resp. Br. at 11. However, the absence of certain language is not dispositive of whether the preamble gives meaning to the claim. Just calling the preamble a statement of purpose does not automatically preclude it from serving as a claim limitation. This case is similar to Pitney Bowes, where “both independent claims 1 and 3 contain a preamble stating that they claim either a method of, or an apparatus for, “producing on a photoreceptor an image of generated shapes made up of spots ....”” 182 F.3d at 1305. The Federal Circuit found that “the term ‘spots’ is initially used in the preamble to refer to the elements that make up the image of generated shapes that are produced on the photoreceptor. The term ‘spots’ then appears twice in each of the independent claims.” Id. at 1306. The court held, “That the claim term ‘spots’ refers to the components that together make up the images of generated shapes on the photoreceptor is only discernible from the claim preamble.” Id. The Federal Circuit concluded, “it is essential that the court charged with claim construction construe the preamble and the remainder of the claim, as we have done here, as one unified and internally consistent recitation of the claimed invention.” Id.

Although the term “PCPI” is not as clearly defined by the preamble here as the term “spots” was defined in the preamble construed in Pitney Bowes, the term “PCPI” as used in the body of the claims 1, 18, and 19 (but not 11) relies on the preamble’s explanation of the abbreviation “PCPI.” Further, the preamble reinforces the centrality of “increasing a number of persistent consistency point images” to the entire invention. See Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. v. Schering-Plough Corp., 320 F.3d 1339, 1345 (Fed.Cir.2003) (“ ‘growing’ and ‘isolating’ are not merely circumstances in which the method may be useful, but instead are the raison d’etre of the claimed method itself’). However, the Court would not construe the preamble as a limitation on this basis alone.

Sun further argues that the specification touts increasing a number of persistent consistency points as fundamental to the invention: “The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing an on-disk storage arrangement that increases the number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) that may be maintained for a volume of a storage system.” '720 patent, col. 5:14-18. Sun relies on On Demand Machine Corp. v. Ingram Indust., Inc., 442 F.3d 1331, 1344 (Fed.Cir.2006), where the Federal Circuit distinguished mere statements of purpose from limiting preambles that are “ ‘necessary to give life, meaning and vitality to the claims.’ ” Id. at 1344 (internal citations omitted). In On Demand, the preamble was “a method of high speed manufacture of a single copy of a book.” Id. at 1336. In holding that the preamble there was limiting, the Court relied on the specification’s teaching that “[t]he high speed manufacture of a single copy is fundamental” to the invention, so that “the entirety of the claim implements the preamble’s high speed manufacture of single copy.” Id. at 1344. NetApp concedes that the specification uses the phrase “increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs),” but contends that the phrase is used as a statement of purpose throughout the specification, rather than a limitation. While not as compellingly as in On Demand, the preamble’s emphasis on the increase of PCPIs does “serv[e] to focus the reader on the invention that is being claimed.” On Demand, 442 F.3d at 1343.

Significantly, the applicants specifically relied on the preamble to overcome a prior art rejection, as Sun points out. On September 13, 2006, the PTO issued an office action rejecting all pending independent claims “as being unpatentable over [the Cabrera reference].” '720 Patent File History, Sept. 13, 2006 Office Action at 2-6. In response to the examiner’s rejection, the applicants distinguished Cabrera on the ground that it did not teach increasing the number of PCPIs for a volume on a storage system:

Applicant’s claimed invention, as defined in illustrative claim 1, is for a “method for increasing a number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) maintained for a volume of a storage system.” The claimed invention is thus directed to increasing the number of PCPIs for a volume on a storage system.

This is in distinction to Cabrera, which teaches teaches [sic] a system utilizing a plurality of different snapshot service providers, each of which makes a snapshot of a volume.

'720 Patent File History, March 7, 2007 Amendment at 6-7 (emphasis in original).

The applicants further distinguished Cabrera as follows:

Specifically, Cabrera teaches an API [application interface] that “acts as a coordinator/manager of different volume snapshot providers and an administrator of snapshot providers.” The Examiner states that the API “performs equivalent operation to that of volume information block since API calls is provided, which is used to coordinate and administer multiple snapshot providers [clearly] requiring plurality of pointers configured to reference the fsinfo and PCPI fsinfo blocks.” Applicant respectfully disagrees.

Applicant’s claimed invention is directed to increasing the number of PCPI’s that may be generated on a storage system. To that end, Applicant’s invention, in representative claim 1 states, in part, “providing one or more PCPI fsinfo blocks, each PCPI fsinfo block associated with a PCPI. As noted in Applicants’ specification ‘[e]ach additional fsinfo block [that] is associated with a PCPI includes the inode of the inode file for the PCPI, which in turn includes appropriate inodes for active maps and the like.’ [Citation omitted.] On disk, the volinfo block contains pointers to a plurality of fsinfo blocks, including one for the active file system and fsinfo blocks for each PCPI. [Citation omitted.]

'720 Patent File History, March 7, 2007 Amendment at 7-8 (emphasis added).

These statements to the PTO make clear that NetApp viewed the preamble as comprising the critical limitation that distinguished its invention from the prior art. See Halliburton Energy Serv., Inc. v. M-I LLC, 514 F.3d 1244, 1246 (Fed.Cir.2008) (patentee correctly conceded that the preamble at issue was limiting because the patentee had relied on the preamble to distinguish prior art during prosecution). NetApp’s reliance on Intirtool, Ltd. v. Texar Corp., 369 F.3d 1289 (Fed.Cir.2004) is misplaced because the Federal Circuit held there that the statements in the prosecution history could have been interpreted as referring to the structural limitations in the body of the claim, rather than the preamble. Id. at 1295. Here, by contrast, the teaching of “increasing a number of [PCPI’s]” does not appear in the body of the claim and it is apparent from the prosecution history that the applicants relied on the preamble.

NetApp points out that the applicants did not amend the preamble at issue, distinguishing Symantec Corp. v. Computer Associates Int’l, where the applicant added the “as it is being transferred” language in dispute to overcome the prior art. 522 F.3d 1279, 1289 (Fed.Cir.2008), reh’g and reh’g en banc denied (May 20, 2008). However, an amendment is not the sine qua non for the prosecution history to influence claim construction. NetApp notes that the Examiner at one point in the prosecution history recognized that the claims of the '720 patent were patentable because of the limitations recited in the bodies of the claims, specifically the novel volinfo block '720 Patent File History, Feb. 17, 2005 Notice of Allowability at 2. See also Aug. 10, 2005 Notice of Allowability at 2 (same). However, NetApp concedes that these notices of allowance were issued by the PTO before it considered Cabrera and before the applicants made the statements at issue to distinguish Cabrera. Thus, they have little, if any, relevance. Cf. STX, LLC v. Brine, Inc., 211 F.3d 588, 591 (Fed.Cir.2000) (examiner rejected the claim for obviousness even after the preamble language was added, suggesting that the phrase was not essential in distinguishing it over the prior art, and was not decisive in securing allowance of the claim during prosecution).

NetApp also argues that the crux of the applicants’ arguments consisted of explaining why Cabrera had not disclosed the patentably significant structures of the vol-info block and PCPI fsinfo blocks, and that the applicants never stated that the '720 patent claims were limited by the preamble. In support of this argument, NetApp cites this passage of the prosecution history:

The Examiner states that Cabrera discloses PCPI fsinfo blocks because Cabrera teaches that the VSSC [Volume Snapshot Service Coordinator] is used to coordinate and administer multiple snapshot service providers. Applicants respectfully traverse this characterization. Cabrera does not teach one of [sic] more PCPI fsinfo blocks. In column 5, lines 36^45, Cabrera discusses operations performed by a snapshot provide [sic] (SP), but Cabrera does not disclose any data structures utilized by SPs. Moreover, Cabrera does not disclose any on-disk structures, such as a PCPI fsinfo block that is used by a SP. As noted above, Cabrera is directed to and teaches a system that utilizes one or more SPs, but does not disclose a method for increasing the number of PCPIs for a volume nor does Cabrera disclose PCPI fsinfo blocks.

'720 Patent File History, March 7, 2007 Amendment at 8 (emphasis added). Although this passage shows that the applicants relied in part on the on-disk structures to distinguish Cabrera from the claimed invention, the last sentence of this passage clearly demonstrates that the applicants also relied on the claimed method for increasing the number of PCPIs to distinguish the prior art, thereby “transforming the preamble into a claim limitation.” Intirtool, 369 F.3d at 1295.

Accordingly, taken together, the specification, claim language and prosecution history demonstrate that the preamble is a claim limitation, not merely an introduction to the claims. The prosecution history especially contains clear statements by the applicants distinguishing the prior art on the ground that Cabrera did not disclose a method for increasing the number of PCPIs for a volume. Catalina Mktg. Int’l v. Coolsavings.com, Inc., 289 F.3d 801, 808 (Fed.Cir.2002) (“clear reliance on the preamble during prosecution to distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art transforms the preamble into a claim limitation because such reliance indicates use of the preamble to define, in part, the claimed invention”).

b. Indefinite

Sun next contends that the term “increasing a number of consistency point images” is indefinite under section 112, paragraph 2. A claim is indefinite under section 112, ¶ 2 when “its legal scope is not clear enough that a person of ordinary skill in the art could determine whether a particular [product] infringes or not.” Geneva Pharms., Inc. v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC, 349 F.3d 1373, 1384 (Fed.Cir.2003). “It is the applicants’ burden to precisely define the invention, not the PTO’s,” and section 112, ¶ 2 “puts the burden of precise claim drafting squarely on the applicant.” In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1056 (Fed. Cir.1997). Indefiniteness must be shown by clear and convincing evidence that the claim terms at issue are “not amenable to construction” or are “insolubly ambiguous.” Datamize, LLC v. Plumtree Software, Inc., 417 F.3d 1342, 1347-48 (Fed.Cir.2005). The inquiry “depends on whether those terms can be given any reasonable meaning.” Id. at 1347. Unless “reasonable efforts at claim construction prove futile[,]” the claim is not invalid for indefiniteness. Exxon Research & Eng’g Co. v. United States, 265 F.3d 1371, 1375 (Fed.Cir.2001).

Sun contends that the term “increasing” provides one of skill in the art with no measure of the scope of the claims. Sun’s expert contends that the term “increasing a number of persistent consistency point images” implies that a storage system was previously capable of storing a certain number of consistency point images and that, as a result of the claimed invention, the system is now able to store more persistent consistency point images. However, the term does not specify the numerical capacity before the invention and therefore does not provide sufficient guidance as to how many consistency point images must be stored in order to infringe upon the claims. Brandt Decl., ¶¶ 19-21. Sun argues that the plain meaning of “increasing” requires that there be some baseline from which the increase occurs.

Sun opposes NetApp’s proposed construction (“to provide/providing more than a low predefined number of maintainable persistent consistency point images”) as similarly indefinite, point out that the term “low” is subjective and leaves unclear at what point a particular system infringes. Specifically, Sun argues, there is no readily understood meaning in the art for the term “low” as applied to snapshots or persistent consistency point images. Sun concludes that this failure to provide a sufficiently objective standard of measurement renders the claims indefinite, citing Da-tamize, 417 F.3d at 1351 (“‘aesthetically pleasing’ does not exactly compare to words of degree such as ‘substantially equal to,’ ” but invokes a similar analysis). In Datamize, the court reasoned: “ ‘When a word of degree is used the district court must determine whether the patent’s specification provides some standard for measuring that degree.’ Seattle Box Co. [v. Industrial Crating & Packing, Inc.}, 731 F.2d [818] at 826 [ (Fed.Cir.1984) ]. Similarly, when faced with a purely subjective phrase like ‘aesthetically pleasing,’ a court must determine whether the patent’s specification supplies some standard for measuring the scope of the phrase. Thus, we next consult the written description.” 417 F.3d at 1351. The court determined that the written description failed to set forth “an objective way to determine whether an interface screen is ‘aesthetically pleasing.’ ” Id. at 1352. “[Wjhile the description of an embodiment provides examples of aesthetic features of screen displays that can be controlled by the authoring system, it does not explain what selection of these features would be ‘aesthetically pleasing.’ ” Id.

Sun also argues that the claims are indefinite because they do not distinguish the prior art, citing Amgen, Inc. v. Chugai Pharma. Co., Ltd., 927 F.2d 1200, 1217-18 (Fed.Cir.1991) (affirming district court’s determination that claim term “at least about 160,000” was indefinite where no expert testified as to a definite meaning for the term in the context of the close prior art) and Halliburton, 514 F.3d at 1253 (determining that claim term “fragile gel” was indefinite because “the specification does not distinguish how the ‘fragile gels’ claimed in the '832 patent performed differently than the disclosed prior art-how much more quickly the gels broke when stress was imposed or how much more quickly the gels reformed when stress was removed”). Sun contends that because the '720 patent specification offers no guidance for determining what systems meet the “increasing” limitation, under NetApp’s construction, the '720 patent claims read on the prior art WAFL system of the '292 patent in the related case, Network Appliance Inc. v. Sun Microsystems Inc., C-07-6053 EDL. See Brandt Reply Decl. ¶¶ 23-25. Sun concludes that because the patent fails to explain what “increase” is sufficient to distinguish the purported invention from the prior art, this claim phrase is indefinite. Amgen, 927 F.2d at 1218 (“When the meaning of claims is in doubt, especially when, as is the case here, there is close prior art, they are properly declared invalid.”); Halliburton, 514 F.3d at 1252-53.

NetApp responds that the term is not indefinite because it can, if necessary, be construed. See Invitrogen Corp. v. Biocrest Mfg., L.P., 424 F.3d 1374, 1383-1384 (Fed.Cir.2005) (having construed the preamble term “improved competence,” the Court found the term not indefinite). There, the court reasoned as follows: “ ‘The test for indefiniteness does not depend on a potential infringer’s ability to ascertain the nature of its own accused product to determine infringement, but instead on whether the claim delineates to a skilled artisan the bounds of the invention.’ SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Apotex Corp., 403 F.3d 1331, 1341 (Fed.Cir.2005). This court’s and the district court’s constructions of the claim showed that it contained no material ambiguities, and therefore was not invalid for indefiniteness.” Invitrogen, 424 F.3d at 1384. NetApp contends that should the Court deem it necessary to interpret this term, the construction “to provide/providing more than a low predefined number of maintainable persistent consistency point images” should apply. It argues that this construction captures the intent of the '720 patent to overcome the prior art’s low and limited numbers of maintainable snapshots.

Sun counters that the claim would still be indefinite under this construction because a person of ordinary skill in the art would not be able to discern a “meaningfully precise claim scope.” Halliburton, 514 F.3d at 1251 (“The fact that Halliburton can articulate a definition supported by the specification, however, does not end the inquiry. Even if a claim term’s definition can be reduced to words, the claim is still indefinite if a person of ordinary skill in the art cannot translate that definition into meaningfully precise claim scope.”). NetApp offers expert opinion that one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the '720 patent was filed in 2004 would have understood that applying the approach of the '720 patent to a preexisting system or method results in a new system or method that supports an increased number of PCPIs compared to when it did not use the approach of the patent. Ganger Decl. ¶ 29. The specification describes the disadvantage of prior art systems:

A noted disadvantage of such an on-disk storage structure is a limitation on the number PCPIs (e.g., 31) that may be maintained with the file system. As a result, a system administrator (user) may be forced to modify PCPI creation and/or retention schedules to avoid exhausting the available number of maintainable PCPIs. This limitation may prove burdensome and, possibly, costly depending upon the need for additional PCPI capacity. The present invention is directed to alleviating this limitation.

'720 patent, col. 5:4-12. In the section titled “Summary of the Invention,” the specification then describes the invention as increasing the number of PCPIs, illustratively, to 255 or up to “any number of PCPIs” by introducing the volinfo data structure to provide a level of indirection that increases the number of PCPIs maintainable by a file system:

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing an on-disk storage arrangement that increases the number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) that may be maintained for a volume of a storage system. The on-disk storage arrangement comprises a novel volume information (volinfo) block representing the root of the volume; the volinfo block is stored at predefined locations on disk and comprises various system wide configuration data. According to the invention, the volinfo block further comprises a data structure configured to provide a level of indirection that increases the number of PCPIs maintainable by a file system executing on the storage system. To that end, the data structure may be organized as an array of pointers, wherein each pointer references a data block comprising a snapshot root, thereby enabling efficient access to each PCPI maintained by the file system.

In the illustrative embodiment, the volume comprises data blocks organized within a volume block number (vbn) space maintained by the file system. The array is embodied as a vbn lookup table having a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises a vbn pointer configured to point to (reference) a file system information (fsinfo) block within the volume. The fsinfo block contains information that specifies a layout of the file system. Each entry of the vbn lookup table is indexed by an identifier assigned to each PCPI; notably, entry zero holds a vbn pointer to the “active” file system. Thus, one of the fsinfo blocks referenced by the vbn lookup table is associated with the active file system, while the remaining fsinfo blocks are associated with PCPIs of the active file system.

Advantageously, the novel vbn lookup table enables efficient access to information describing the active file system and, illustratively, 255 PCPIs. This feature of the invention permits an illustrative eight-fold increase in the number of PCPIs maintainable by the file system. Additional PCPIs may be maintained in the storage system by configuring the vbn lookup table to provide further levels of indirection. For example, the entries of the vbn lookup table may be configured to reference indirect fsinfo blocks that, in turn, reference “direct” fsinfo blocks. Therefore by expanding the number of levels of indirection, any number of PCPIs may be maintained with the file system.

'720 patent, col. 5:13-55.

Required to make “reasonable efforts at claim construction,” Exxon, 265 F.3d at 1375, the Court determines that the disputed claim term is not as subjective as the “aesthetically pleasing” term presented in Datamize, but still needs some basis for interpreting the “increasing” term with meaningful precision. The Court agrees that NetApp’s proposed limitation of “more than a low predefined number” is neither sufficiently illuminating nor adequately supported by the specification. However, the specification does support a construction of the term to include an “any number of PCPIs” limitation: “Therefore by expanding the number of levels of indirection, any number of PCPIs may be maintained within the file system.” '720 patent, col. 5:53-55 (emphasis added). This construction is consistent with the architecture claimed in the patent that is capable of supporting an unlimited number of snapshots by adding levels of indirection, in contrast to the prior art system which had limited capacity and would require the system operator to modify creation or retention schedules to avoid exhausting the available number of maintainable snapshots. See '720 patent, col. 5:4-12; 5:22-26 (“According to the invention, the volinfo block further comprises a data structure configured to provide a level of indirection that increases the number of PCPIs maintainable by a file system executing on the storage system.”). “Any number” is necessarily a larger number than that in the prior art, whose disadvantage was a fixed number, which capacity could be outgrown.

For the reasons set forth above, the Court construes “increas[ed/ing] a number of persistent consistency point images” as “permitting any number of PCPIs to be maintained.”

2. “file system information (fsinfo) block”

The parties primarily disagree whether the claimed fsinfo block is stored in a fixed location on disk, as Sun contends. Sun also proposes that the fsinfo block be construed to include information describing aspects of the volume, such as the size of the volume, volume level options, and language. Sun argues that this term is virtually identical to the term in the '292 patent construed in the related litigation, C-07-6053 EDL, where the Court construed “file system information structure” to mean “data structure that contains the root inode of a file system in a fixed location on disk.” NetApp counters that limitations from other patents should not be imported here because the '720 patent discloses a novel volinfo block.

a. Incorporation by Reference

Sun contends that NetApp has assigned a special meaning to the claim term “fsinfo block” by incorporating by reference two earlier patents: U.S. Patent No. 5,819,292 (the “'292 patent”) and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2002/0083037A1, entitled Instant Snapshot, which issued as U.S. Patent No. 7,072,916 (the “'916 patent”). See Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1316 (“[0]ur cases recognize that the specification may reveal a special definition given to a claim term by the patentee that differs from the meaning it would otherwise possess. In such cases, the inventor’s lexicography governs.”). The '720 specification provides: (“In the example of a WAFL file system, snapshots are described [in the '292 patent] which is hereby incorporated by reference as though full [sic] set forth herein.”). '720 patent, col. 3:62-4:2. The '720 specification also states: “Examples of snapshot and block allocation data structures, such as the active map, space map and summary map, are described in [the '916 patent application], which application is hereby incorporated by reference.” Id. at 4:20-26. Sun argues that documents incorporated by reference into a patent become part of the patent’s intrinsic record, citing AquaTex Indus., Inc. v. Techniche Solutions, 419 F.3d 1374, 1381-82 (Fed.Cir.2005). In AquaTex, the court held that because “AquaTex chose to incorporate by reference the teachings of three United States Patents to define the scope of the term ‘fiberfill,’ these publications are highly relevant to one of ordinary skill in the art for ascertaining the breadth of the claim term.” 419 F.3d at 1381.

Sun points out that the '916 patent contains a special “Lexicography” section that defines fsinfo as located at a fixed location and including data about the volume. The Lexicography section appears in the section of the '916 patent entitled “Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment,” and defines fsinfo as follows:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the following description, a preferred embodiment of the invention is described with regard to preferred process steps and data structures. However, those skilled in the art would recognize, after perusal of this application, that embodiments of the invention might be implemented using a variety of other techniques without undue experimentation or further invention, and that such other techniques would be within the scope and spirit of the invention.

Lexicography

As used herein, use of the following terms refer or relate to aspects of the invention as described below. The general meaning of these terms is intended to be illustory and in no way limiting.

fsinfo (File System Information Block) — In general, the phrase “file system information block” refers to one or more copies of a block known as the “fsinfo block”. These blocks are located at fixed locations on the disks. The fsinfo block includes data about the volume including the size of the volume, volume level options, language and more.

As described herein, the scope and spirit of the invention is not limited to any of the definitions or specific examples shown therein, but is intended to include the most general concepts embodied by these and other terms.

'916 patent, col. 3:42-5:18 (emphasis added). Sun argues that NetApp has recognized that this Lexicography section of the '916 patent is meant to be definitional, referring to NetApp’s response to the PTO’s Office Action in Inter Partes Reexamination of yet another patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,857,001. This argument is not persuasive. As the '916 specification expressly states, the Lexicography section refers to a preferred embodiment, and also cautions that “the scope and spirit of the invention is not limited to any of the definitions or specific examples shown therein.” Id.

Sun also ignores the extent to which the '720 specification’s incorporation of the two earlier patents by reference focuses on aspects of the prior invention other than the fsinfo block. The '720 specification refers to the '292 patent to describe snapshots in “the example of a WAFL system,” and to the '916 patent to provide “[examples of snapshot and block allocation data structures.” '720 patent, col. 3:62, 4:20-26. See also '720 patent, col. 11:13-20 (from the section entitled “Storage Operating System” in the Detailed Description of an Illustrative Embodiment: “The in core and on-disk format structures of the WAFL file system, including the inodes and inode file, are disclosed and described in the previously incorporated [’292 patent].”). Furthermore, the Court’s construction of the term “file system information structure” in the '292 patent was based on that patent’s specification, which teaches that the fsinfo block is located at a fixed location. See '292 patent, col. 10:58-60 (“The root inode 1510B of a file system is kept in a fixed location on disk so that it can be located during booting of the file system.”). That construction is not binding on the '720 patent, which describes a different file system where the novel volinfo block is “at a predetermined location on disk,” '720 patent, col. 14:1-2, but nowhere describes the fsinfo block as being in a fixed location. The Court therefore declines to incorporate the definition of fsinfo block from a preferred embodiment of the '916 patent or from the Court’s construction of the '292 patent.

b. Fixed Location

Sun contends that the specification supports its construction that the fsinfo block is stored in a fixed location. The specification teaches that the fsinfo block is preferably stored in a fixed location within a RAID group. '720 patent, col. 4:31-35 (“Each logical volume (hereinafter ‘volume’) has a file system information (fsinfo) block that is preferably stored at a fixed location within, e.g., a RAID group.”). Moreover, Sun argues, the only embodiment that is disclosed and enabled by the '720 patent requires the fsinfo block to be in a fixed location. Sun relies on the following passages of the Detailed Description of an Illustrative Embodiment in the '720 patent:

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

'720 patent, col. 5:13-29 (emphasis added);

C. Increasing the Number of PCPIs in a File System

The present invention is directed to an on-disk storage arrangement that increases the number of persistent consistency point images (PCPIs) that may be maintained by file system 380 for a volume of storage system 220. The storage arrangement comprises a novel volume information (volinfo) block representing a root of the volume; the vol-info block is stored at predefined locations on disk 230 and comprises various system wide configuration data. In particular, the volinfo block contains appropriate fields so that software, including versions of the storage operating system, may recognize that the volinfo block is not a fsinfo block. As noted above, the fsinfo block is typically located at vbns 1 and 2; as described herein, the on-disk storage arrangement of the present invention replaces the fsinfo block with the novel volinfo block at this predefined location.

Id. at col. 11:20-36 (emphasis added);

According to the invention, the volinfo block 600 comprises a data structure configured to provide a level of indirection that increases the number of PCPIs maintainable by file system 380. To that end, the data structure may be organized as an array of pointers, wherein each pointer references a block containing a snapshot root (i.e., inode for the inode file of a PCPI), thereby enabling efficient access to each PCPI maintained by the file system. The array of pointers is contained in the vbn array field 680.

In the illustrative embodiment, the array is preferably embodied as a vbn lookup table 682 having a plurality of entries 681, wherein each enti“y comprises a vbn pointer 686 configured to point to (reference) a fsinfo block within the volume. As noted, the fsinfo block contains information that specifies the layout of the file system. Each entry 684 of the vbn lookup table 682 is indexed by an identifier (ID) assigned to each PCPI; notably, entry zero holds a vbn pointer 686 to the “active” file system. Thus, one of the fsinfo blocks referenced by the vbn lookup table 682 is associated with the active file system, while the remaining fsinfo blocks are associated with PCPIs of the active file system.

Id. at col. 12:43-64 (emphasis added).

The '720 patent thus teaches that the allegedly novel volinfo block is stored at the locations that were “typically” previously occupied by the fsinfo blocks. '720 patent, col. 11:21-36. The volinfo block comprises an array of pointers to the fsinfo blocks storing the root of the current file system and snapshot roots. Id. at 12:43-64. In the disclosed embodiment, this array is organized in a lookup table, where each entry holds a volume block number pointer to a snapshot fsinfo, and entry 0 holds a pointer to the active file system fsinfo. Id. at 12:52-64.

NetApp argues that while claim 1 recites that the volinfo block is “at a predetermined location on disk,” the fsinfo blocks are not. '720 patent, col. 13:59-14:5. NetApp emphasizes that nowhere in the specification is the fsinfo block described as always being in a fixed location, and correctly points out that at most a fixed location is described only as a preferred embodiment. NetApp argues that even when describing prior art systems, such as the system described in the '292 patent, the '720 patent simply states that the fsinfo block “is preferably stored at a fixed location within, e.g., a RAID group.” '720 patent, col. 4:33-34. NetApp contends that because the volinfo block replaces the fsinfo block at the “typical” or predefined location, the fsinfo block is not limited to a fixed location.

Sun offers expert opinion that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand this specification to teach that fsinfo blocks are stored at other fixed locations when replaced by the volinfo block, but points to no intrinsic evidence to support this conclusion. See Brandt Reply Decl. ¶ 38. First, Sun argues that the '720 specification does not disclose a mechanism to update the lookup table. Sun contends that under its construction of the term fsinfo block, such a mechanism would not be necessary to enable the invention because the locations of the fsinfo blocks are fixed and do not change, whereas under Ne-tApp’s construction, the claims are not enabled because the specification fails to teach how the volinfo lookup table may track fsinfo blocks that are changing locations. Brandt Decl. ¶ 24. Sun also contends that there is no teaching of how the volinfo block and other necessary structures, such as the blockmap file, can keep track of fsinfo blocks, unless they are at a fixed location. Brandt Reply Decl. ¶ 39.

NetApp offers its own expert opinion that the '720 patent need not expressly describe how to update the pointers in the vbn lookup table because one of ordinary skill in the art would know how to update them as the pointers of the vbn lookup table are akin to the block pointers in inodes and indirect blocks and can be updated in the same way. Ganger Decl. ¶ 41. NetApp contends that updating of pointers in the vbn lookup table occurs in the same way as for any other pointer and that one of ordinary skill would be able to infer this from the '720 patent. While Sun is correct that the patent is silent on how to update the pointers, which may perhaps presage an issue of enablement in the future, there is insufficient evidence on this point to support Sun’s proposed construction. See Phillips, 415 F.3d at 1327 (“While we have acknowledged the maxim that claims should be construed to preserve their validity, we have not applied that principle broadly, and we have certainly not endorsed a regime in which validity analysis is a regular component of claim construction.”).

Sun also offers expert opinion that despite the statement that the fsinfo block is “preferably stored,” in a fixed location, one of skill in the art would understand that the fsinfo block must be at a fixed place based on review of the '720 specification and the '292 and '916 patent specifications, which are incorporated by reference. Brandt Reply Decl. ¶ 30. For some of the same reasons discussed above, the Court does not find that argument persuasive. As NetApp points out, the '292 patent was filed in 1995, nearly ten years before the '720 patent application was filed. Furthermore, the fsinfo block disclosed by the '720 patent has different features and need not serve the exact same function as in the '292 patent’s preferred embodiment, especially because the volinfo points to the fsinfo blocks and contains system-wide configuration data.

NetApp explains that while the volinfo block is in a fixed, predetermined location, the fsinfo blocks are not limited in this way: “the fsinfo block is typically located at vbns 1 and 2; as described herein, the on-disk storage arrangement of the present invention replaces the fsinfo block with the novel volinfo block at this predefined location.” '720 patent at 11:33-36. Elsewhere, the specification states, “The volin-fo 600 is illustratively located at vbns 1 and 2 or, in alternate embodiments, at another predetermined location on disk.” Id. at 11:46-47. NetApp explains that the '720 patent describes a system where the volin-fo block points to the fsinfo blocks: the volinfo block references (i.e., points to direct or indirect) multiple fsinfo blocks, including the fsinfo block for the active file system and PCPI fsinfo blocks for each PCPI that is maintained by the file system. Ganger Decl. ¶ 39. NetApp argues that the use of pointers is a clear mechanism for finding fsinfo blocks that are stored anywhere in the file system; indeed, such flexibility is one of the primary benefits of using pointers in file system architecture. NetApp’s expert opines that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that these fsinfo blocks do not need to be in fixed locations: because the volinfo block points to the fsinfo blocks, the fsinfo blocks can be stored anywhere in the file system space. Ganger Decl. ¶ 39.

The Court determines that NetApp has the more persuasive argument that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that allocating PCPI fsinfo blocks, as needed, is workable and more space-efficient than pre-allocating an fsinfo block for every possible one of the “any number of PCPIs” that may be maintained with the claimed system. See '720 patent, col. 5:53-55 (“by expanding the number of levels of indirection, any number of PCPIs may be maintained with the file system”). One of ordinary skill in the art would understand how to allocate space for fsinfo blocks, as needed, and update volinfo pointers just like an inode’s pointers are updated to point to new data blocks. See Ganger Decl. ¶ 40. The Court therefore declines to adopt Sun’s proposed construction requiring fsinfo blocks to be at a fixed location.

c. Volume Information

NetApp challenges Sun’s construction requiring the fsinfo block to describe the volume, including at least the size of the volume, volume level options, and language. NetApp argues that the '720 patent never describes the fsinfo block as containing information about the volume as a whole (such as the size of the volume, volume level options, and language). Instead, NetApp argues, it is the novel volin-fo block that contains “various system wide configuration data.” '720 patent, col. 5:21-22 (“the volinfo block is stored at predefined locations on disk and comprises various system wide configuration data”); 11:28 (“the volinfo block is stored at predefined locations on disk 230 and comprises various system wide configuration data”). NetApp offers expert opinion that a person of ordinary skill in the art reading the '720 patent would understand that there would be no need (and in fact, it would be inefficient and could create inconsistency) for the fsinfo block to also contain the same information. Ganger Decl. II42.

Sun counters that the '916 patent definition of fsinfo, incorporated by reference in the '720 patent, also teaches that the fsinfo block “includes data about the volume, including the size of the volume, volume level options, and language.” '916 patent, col. 4:14-20 [Lexicography section]. Sun challenges the opinion of NetApp’s expert that “there would be no need for the fsinfo block to contain the same information” as the volinfo block. See Ganger Decl. ¶ 42. Sun contends that the '720 patent teaches that the fsinfo is still a key volume level structure, even in the presence of the vol-info block: “Each logical volume (hereinafter “volume”) has a file system information (fsinfo) block.” '720 patent, col. 9:5-10. Thus, Sun contends, it would make sense to store some volume level parameters in the fsinfo. Brandt Reply Decl. ¶ 35. Sun points to Figure 6 in the '720 patent, which lists information stored in the volin-fo structure. Because none of the data fields in Fig. 6 correspond to volume size, options, and language data, Sun argues that one of ordinary skill would understand that these fields are in the fsinfo block, in accordance with the teaching of the '916 patent. Brandt Reply Decl. ¶ 34. Sun’s construction presumes that the absence of these volume fields in Figure 6 necessarily means that the fields cannot also be in the volinfo block, and argues further that they must therefore reside in the fsinfo block. However, this construction would improperly import a limitation from a single embodiment which the specification clearly disclaims. See '720 patent, col. 11:60-62, 12:5-7 (“FIG. 6 is a schematic block of an exemplary volinfo block 600 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.... It should be noted that in alternate embodiments additional and/or differing fields may be included in the volinfo block 600.”) (emphasis added). Accordingly, the Court agrees with Ne-tApp that the volume data is not contained in the fsinfo block.

For the reasons set forth above, the Court adopts NetApp’s construction of “file system information (fsinfo) block” as “a data structure containing information specifying the layout of a file system.”

B. The '417 Patent: Mechanism for Handling File Level and Block Level Remote File Accesses Using the Same Server

The '417 patent is directed to an apparatus and method for handling both file level and block level remote file accesses:

An apparatus for handling file level and block level remote file accesses. The apparatus includes a block level server. The apparatus includes a file level server. The apparatus includes a storage layer implementing an inode layer performing inode operations, and storing data accessed by the file level and block level servers. The apparatus includes a management layer connected to the storage layer underlying the block and file level servers, which performs data management operations upon the underlying data. A method of handling file level and block level network file accesses. The method includes the steps of performing management operations by a management layer for a block level server and a file level server. Then there is the step of performing the servers’ data accessing and updating operations using a vnode layer implemented on top of an inode layer. Then there is the step of storing data from the block level server or the file level server in a storage layer connected to the management layer.

'417 patent, Abstract.

3. “storage layer underlying the block and file level servers”

The parties dispute whether the term recites a layered software architecture in which the storage layer is the software layer providing services to the block and file level servers connected to the management layer, as NetApp contends, or is instead the software level immediately below and coupled to the block and file level servers, as Sun contends. The parties also dispute whether the storage layer is above the management layer, as Sun contends, o