United States Federal Circuit

In consolidated appeals of suits for infringement of a patent related to automated systems and methods for voting in an election, featuring a self-verification procedure by which "machine and human error may be detected and corrected before the ballot is submitted by the voter for tabulation," district court's judgment is affirmed where: 1) the district court correctly held claim 49 invalid for obviousness; 2) the district court did not err by granting plaintiff's summary judgment motion that claims 1-48, 50-84, and 86-92 were not proven invalid; 3) the defendants were entitled to summary judgment of noninfringement regarding claims 1 and 25 because none of the accused products includes a ballot scanning device or its equivalent; 4) the district court correctly concluded that plaintiff failed to create a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the defendants exercised the requisite control or direction over voters to directly infringe claims 49, 85, and 93; and 5) plaintiff's numerous challenges to district court's discretionary rulings, including procedural and discovery issues, are without merit.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/05/2012
• Published 11/05/2012

Judges

• Lourie

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel