The firm achieved an important victory this week for its client Tellme Networks, a subsidiary of Microsoft, when the court granted summary judgment and dismissed a patent infringement case against Tellme prior to trial.
The suit, by rival Nuance Communications, claimed that Tellme had infringed a patent on a voice recognition and response system for use in telephone applications. The United States District Court for the District of Delaware held that all five claims of the patent were invalid, either because they were anticipated by a previously published patent application or were obvious in light of the prior art. The court also granted Tellme's motion for summary judgment with respect to two of Nuance's three infringement theories, and agreed with Tellme's claim construction on all but one disputed term.
Steven Zalesin (Chair of the firm's litigation department),
Eugene Gelernter and
Chad Peterman represented Tellme. The case is
Nuance Communications Inc., et al. v. Tellme Networks Inc., Civ. No.06-105-SLR, (D. Del.). The April 20, 2010 decision is accessible through the link above.