Polaris Innovations Ltd. v. Kingston Technology Co.

ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Polaris Innovations Limited filed suit against defendant Kingston Technology Company, Inc. on the basis that a Kingston-produced computer memory card—model number KVR16R11D4/16— infringes on two Polaris patents, U.S. Patent No. 6,850,414 (the 414 Patent) and U.S. Patent No. 7,315,454 (the 454 Patent). Count III of Polaris’s Complaint asserts infringement of the 414 Patent and Count V of the Complaint asserts infringement of the 454 Patent. (Dkt. 1.) Kingston has now moved for judgment on the pleadings, (Dkt. 79), pursuant to Rule 12(c), on Counts III and V of the Complaint, alleging that the asserted claims of the 414 Patent and 454 Patent are facially invalid, as they fail to claim patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 .

Section 101 indicates that machines are patentable subject matter, and a long line of caselaw makes it clear that “abstract ideas” are not patentable subject matter. Here, both the 414 Patent and the 454 Patent pertain to the arrangement of memory chips on a computer card that fits a standard dock: by rotating some or all of the memory chips on the…