Secure
Axcess, LLC. v. Nintendo of America Inc.
United
States District Court for the Western District of Washington
Filed
July 7, 2014; Decided August 4, 2015
Case
No. 2:14-cv-01013
Secure Axcess filed suit against Nintendo of America S/A alleging
infringement of U.S. Patent 6,522,309. The accused products are
Defendants’ Nintendo DS handheld game consoles.
The ‘309 patent is entitled, “Multiscreen Personal Computer
Display Method and Apparatus,” and it relates to a computer with multiple
display capability. A user can simultaneously display documents using a
singular processed video data signal source, on two or more screens. The '309 teaches a device termed a "translative video adapter", which is used on two or more screens to view and edit documents simultaneously.
Claim 1:
1. A multiple monitor video
display method for use with a computer to produce a real-time display on a
first monitor and a computer user selected predecessory display on a second
monitor and comprising steps of:
processing computer program
data into a ported source of display-ready first processed video data signal;
first intercoupling the
ported source of first processed video data signal and the first monitor;
first displaying the first
processed video data signal on the first monitor as the real time display;
second intercoupling the
ported source of first processed video data signal and a translative video
adapter (TVA) comprising further steps of:
first enabling the computer
user to select a first sample of a first screen portion of the first processed
video data signal second intercoupled with a TVA input port;
first storing first video
data representing the first sample in a first memory;
advancing the computer
program data to usually produce a second screen portion of the first processed
video data signal for updating the real-time display on the first monitor;
first
reading the first stored said first video data from the first memory;
first converting the first
read said first video data signal into a first predecessory video signal; and,
second displaying the first
predecessory video signal on a second monitor as the first predecessory
display.
On August 4, 2015, the court entered a judgment in favor of
Nintendo, finding Defendants did not infringe the ‘309 patent. The judgment was
based on the claim construction order, which was found in favor of Defendants.
In the claim construction order, both parties asked the Court to
construe "translative video adapter", which is used in Claims 1, 9,
and 13 in the asserted patent. Plaintiff argued the TVA included software
and/or hardware, but the Court declined to adopt this construction. Instead,
the Court agreed with Nintendo that the TVA should be construed to mean an
accessory device. The Court stated, "the term TVA appears in Claims 1 and 9 as a structure - as a physical device to be intercoupl[ed] with data signal and a monitor - not as a function."
