By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Leonard P. Stark in International Business Machines Corp. v. The Priceline Group Inc. et al., Civil Action No. 15-137-LPS (D.Del. September 18, 2017), the Court, among other things, granted plaintiff International Business Machines Corporation’s (“IBM’s”) motion for summary judgment on no anticipation of the asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 5,796,967 (“the ‘967 patent”) in light of the Apple HyperCard System.

IBM asserted that Defendants could not show by clear and convincing evidence that the system was known or in prior use before the effective filing date of the ‘967 patent because evidence was lacking that the HyperCard system was (1) connected to a network, or (2) configured in the manner that Defendants’ expert relied on in his anticipation theories. Id. at *13. The Court found that Defendants did not provide substantial evidence that could support a jury finding that the HyperCard System, as disclosed by the first edition of the Goodman Handbook (the only handbook pre-dating the patent), was enabling. Id. at *16. The Court reasoned that the handbook only addressed what could be done in the future and never discussed any configurations that Defendants’ expert relied on or identified as a specific network to which the system could connect. Id.

A copy of the Memorandum Opinion is attached.

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