Network Appliance, Inc. v. Bluearc Corp.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

Re: Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment of Validity and Invalidity

Plaintiff Network Appliance filed this action in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of three patents that relate to network file server architecture and operating system software. On defendant’s motion, the District of Delaware ordered the action transferred to this court on December 16, 2003. Now before the court are the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment of validity and invalidity of United States Patent Nos. 5,802,366 (“ ’366 Patent”), 5,931,918 (“’918 Patent”), and 6,065,037 (“’037 Patent”). Having fully considered the parties’ arguments and submissions and for the reasons set forth below, the court enters the following memorandum and order.

BACKGROUND

I. The Patents in Suit and the Prior Art

The patents that are the subject of this infringement action relate to computer architectures and storage systems that were developed by Auspex Systems, Inc. in the late 1980s. The ’366 Patent, issued on September 1, 1998, and the ’918 Patent, issued on August 3, 1999, disclose substantially identical multiprocessor file server designs…