Winston Beats ‘Processing’ Claims in Sprint VoIP Patent Battle

Winston successfully defended client Cox Communications against claims in five Sprint Communications patents on May 15, 2015, in front of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

Sprint initially sued Cox, the third largest U.S. cable company, in January 2011 in Kansas. The Kansas case involved 12 patents relating to voice over IP, the technology used by most modern telecommunications systems. Sprint had previously asserted the patents in four other cases, including a $70 million jury verdict against Vonage in 2007. The Winston team successfully transferred that case to Delaware.

In February 2015, Cox asked for partial summary judgment on six of the Sprint patents, arguing that the term “processing system” as used in the asserted claims was indefinite under the Supreme Court’s 2014 Nautilus ruling. Specifically, Cox argued that a “system” that “processes” could mean anything, and therefore the phrase “processing system” was “so obscure as to render the claims indefinite.” Judge Sue Robinson agreed, holding that: “The claim language and the specification do not provide structural limitations for the ‘processing system’ and do not inform those skilled in the art about the scope of the invention with reasonable certainty.” As she concluded: “The limitation is indefinite.” 

Winston’s team was led by partner and co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property practice Michael Brody. Associates Eimeric Reig and Krishnan Padmanabhan played a critical role in the victory.