Crandall Technologies LLC v. VUDU, Inc.
Opinion
Trial Court Opinion
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
CRANDALL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, Case No. 20-cv-04849-VC
Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S v. MOTION TO DISMISS WITH
PREJUDICE
VUDU, INC.,
Re: Dkt. No. 39 Defendant.
Vudu’s motion to dismiss is granted. Claims 4, 6, 10, 13, and 15 of the ‘341 patent, and claims 1, 2, 8, and 17 of the ‘720 patent are invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Crandall’s claims are dismissed with prejudice. 1. These claims are directed to the abstract idea of transmitting information, including instructions and other types of data, from one device to another. Although the claim language is broader than the embodiment discussed in the second amended complaint (which focuses on Vudu’s allegedly infringing system for selecting a video on one device and playing it on the second device), the concept is demonstrably analogous to delivering user-selected media content from one device onto a second device through a wireless network. Affinity Labs of Texas, LLC v. Amazon.com Inc., 838 F.3d 1266, 1269 (Fed. Cir. 2016). Indeed, even accepting Crandall’s characterization of the claims, they are abstract. He describes them…