Princeton Digital Image Corporation v. Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Ubisoft Inc., C.A. No. 13-cv-00335-LPS-CJB, November 4, 2016.

Burke, M. J. Defendants’ partial motion to dismiss claims for indirect and willful infringement is granted.

The disputed technology relates to a method and apparatus for controlling and manipulating a virtual environment in response to music.  Defendants contend that plaintiff failed to allege actual knowledge of the patent-in-suit. Plaintiff claims defendants were aware of the patent-in-suit because during the prosecution of a patent application the patent-in-suit was submitted as prior art. The court finds “two degrees of separation between defendants and the patent-in-suit” which was insufficient to allege pre-suit knowledge.    With respect to post-suit knowledge, the patent expired after only 3 months following the filing of the complaint.  The court was unable to conclude that the original complaint’s allegations put defendants on notice of indirect infringement claims.  Following Halo, the complaint does not allege how the alleged infringement during the short window of three months could amount to an “egregious” case of infringement. Plaintiff’s pre-suit and post-suit infringement claims are dismissed.