Arsus, LLC v. Tesla Motors, Inc.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ARSUS, LLC,

Case No. 20-cv-00313-RS Plaintiff, 11 v. CLAIMS CONSTRUCTION ORDER

TESLA MOTORS, INC.,

13 Defendant.

15 INTRODUCTION In the operative Second Amended Complaint, plaintiff Arsus, LLC alleges defendant Tesla Motors, Inc.’s “Autopilot” system offered in Tesla automobiles infringes United States Patent No. 8,634,989 (“the ’989 Patent”) and United States Patent No. 10,259,494 (“the ’494 Patent”), both of which are entitled “Rollover Prevention Apparatus.” The parties now seek construction of the claims of the ’989 patent.1 The heart of the dispute is whether the patent claims an apparatus that physically prevents a human driver from steering a vehicle to the point where it will rollover, or whether an autopilot system that will not steer to the point of rollover can infringe, even if a human driver can disengage the autopilot merely by turning the steering wheel to resume human control—and thereby…