California Institute of Technology v. Hughes Communications Inc.

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON 35 U.S.C. § 101 INELIGIBILITY

I. Introduction

Plaintiff California Institute of Technology (“Caltech”) has asserted U.S. Patent Nos. 7,116,710 (“the '710 patent”), 7,421,-032 (“the '032 patent”), 7,916,781 (“the '781 patent”), and 8,284,833 (“the '833 patent,”) against Defendants Hughes Communications, Inc., Hughes Network Systems, LLC, DISH Network Corporation, DISH Network L.L.C., and dishNET Satellite Broadband L.L.C. (collectively, “Hughes”). The Court issued a claim construction order on August 6, 2014. See Cal. Inst. of Tech. v. Hughes Commc’ns Inc., 35 F.Supp.3d 1176 , No. 2:13-cv-07245, 2014 WL 3866129 (C.D.Cal. Aug. 6, 2014).

Hughes moves for summary judgment on the grounds that the asserted claims are not patentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101 . 1 The asserted claims focus on a particular form of error correction code, but the concerns underlying the patentability of these claims are the same concerns underlying the patentability of software generally. Having considered the parties’ briefs and the papers filed therewith, the Court concludes that all asserted claims are patentable. Therefore, the Court denies Hughes’…