Verizon California Inc. v. Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P.

Order RE: Claim Construction

I. Background

Verizon California Inc. (“Verizon”) initiated the instant litigation seeking a declaratory judgment of patent non-infringement and invalidity as to certain patents owned by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. (“Katz”). Katz has filed counterclaims for patent infringement against Verizon. The sixteen patents at issue in this litigation are: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,128,-984 (“the ’984 patent”); 5,351,285 (“the ’285 patent”); 5,561,707 (“the ’707 patent”); 5,684,863 (“the ’863 patent”); 5,787,156 (“the ’156 patent”); 5,815,551 (“the ’551 patent”); 5,828,734 (“the ’734 patent”); 5,898,762 (“the ’762 patent”); 5,917,893 (“the ’893 patent”); 5,974,120 (“the ’120 patent”); 6,044,135 (“the ’135 patent”); 6,148,065 (“the ’065 patent”); 6,292,547 (“the ’547 patent”); 6,335,965 (“the ’965 patent”); 6,349,134 (“the ’134 patent”); and 6,434,223 (“the ’223 patent”).

Due to the large number of patents and claims at issue, on September 25, 2002, the Court ordered Katz to identify no more than three representative claims per patent for its infringement case and no more than twenty claims for a claim construction hearing. Katz identified twenty…