Ricoh Co., Ltd. v. Quanta Computer Inc.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
2007-1567

RICOH COMPANY, LTD.,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

QUANTA COMPUTER INC., QUANTA STORAGE, INC.,
QUANTA COMPUTER USA, INC., and NU TECHNOLOGY, INC.,

Defendants-Appellees,

and

BUSINESS LINE DATA, PHILIPS OPTICAL STORAGE,
and PHILIPS TAIWAN, LTD.,

Defendants.

John C. Rozendaal, Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, of Washington, DC, argued
for plaintiff-appellant. With him on the brief were Mark C. Hansen, Michael E. Joffre,
Richard H. Stern. Of counsel on the brief was Ivan S. Kavrukov, Cooper & Dunham
LLP, of New York, New York.

Terrence D. Garnett, Paul, Hastings, of Los Angeles, California, argued for
Defendants-Appellees and Defendants. With him on the brief were Vincent K. Yip,
Peter J. Weid, and Jay C. Chiu. Of counsel were Hua Chen, Daniel Prince, Todd
Snyder, and Katherine F. Murray.

Appealed from: United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin

Chief Judge Barbara B. Crabb.
 United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

2007-1567

RICOH COMPANY, LTD.,

Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.

QUANTA COMPUTER INC., QUANTA STORAGE, INC.,
QUANTA COMPUTER USA, INC., and NU TECHNOLOGY, INC.,

Defendant-Appellees,

and

BUSINESS LINE DATA, PHILIPS OPTICAL STORAGE, and
PHILIPS TAIWAN, LTD.,

Defendants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin,
No. 06-CV-0462, Chief Judge Barbara B. Crabb.

______________________

DECIDED: December 23, 2008
______________________

Before GAJARSA, LINN, and DYK Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM. Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge GAJARSA as to Section III B.

This is a patent infringement case. Plaintiff-appellant Ricoh Company, Ltd.

(“Ricoh”) appeals from a summary judgment dismissing all claims against defendant-

appellees Quanta Computer Inc. (“QCI”), Quanta Storage, Inc. (“QSI”), Quanta

Computer USA, Inc. (“QCA”), and NU Technology, Inc. (“NU”). On summary judgment,

the district court ruled that the asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,631,109 (“the ’109

patent”) are invalid for obviousness; that the accused devices do not practice the
methods of the asserted claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,172,955 (“the ’955 patent”); and

that Ricoh failed to present evidence sufficient to create a material issue of fact as to

either direct or indirect infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,063,552 (“the ’552 patent”)

and 6,661,755 (“the ’755 patent”) by the defendant-appellees. Ricoh Co. v. Quanta

Computer, Inc., 579 F. Supp. 2d 1110 (W.D. Wisc. 2007) (“Summary Judgment Order”).

Because the district court applied erroneous legal standards for assessing (1) whether

Quanta contributorily infringed the ’552 and ’755 patents and (2) whether QSI induced

infringement of the ’552 and ’755 patents, the district court’s summary judgment of

noninfringement is vacated on these issues. The remainder of the decision is affirmed

in all respects.

BACKGROUND

The patents in suit are directed to various aspects of optical disc drive

technology. 1 Recordable optical discs and disc drives (e.g., CD-R, DVD-R) allow a user

to permanently record data, and rewritable optical discs and disc drives (e.g., CD-RW,

DVD-RW) allow a user to record, erase, or overwrite data. Recording speeds are

expressed as multiples of a nominal standard speed referred to as “1X speed.” 1X

speed corresponds to a disc having a linear velocity of 1.2 to 1.4 meters per second

(“m/s”) relative to the laser beam, while a 4X speed corresponds to a linear velocity of

4.8 to 5.6 m/s. 2

1
The asserted patents use both “disc” and “disk.” For consistency, we use
“disc” except where quoted material differs.
2
A laser is used as the light source for reading and writing of optical discs.
Linear velocity refers to the velocity at which a particular spot on the disc passes over
the laser beam.

2007-1567 2
 The ’109 patent is directed to methods and apparatuses for generating a

particular pulse sequence for recording information to a rewritable optical disc. ’109

patent col.3 l.66 to col.4 l.30. Rewritable optical discs store information on a “phase

change” material, usually a metal alloy. Id. at col.1 ll.17–22. When writing, a rewritable

optical disc drive can thus use a laser pulse sequence or write strategy to change the

material from a relatively crystalline phase (having a more ordered atomic structure) to a

relatively amorphous phase (having a more disordered atomic structure), and vice

versa. Id. at col.2 ll.8–15. When reading, the laser can detect these regions based on

their different reflective properties.

The asserted method claims of the ’109 patent cover a specific write strategy for

making legible marks on phase-change optical discs over a wide range of disc speeds.

Asserted claim 1 of the ’109 patent states:

An optical recording method which records a sequence of
data blocks onto a recording layer of an optical recording
medium by emitting light to the recording layer of the
medium and changing a phase of a recording material of the
recording layer, comprising the steps of:

applying a light source driving power to a light source to
control emission of a light beam to the recording layer of the
medium, the driving power including a sequence of mark and
space portions, each mark portion having a pulse width that
corresponds to a multiple of a period T of a write clock based
on a write data modulation method;

setting a multi-pulse waveform of each mark portion of the
driving power that includes a front-end portion, a multi-pulse
portion and a tail-end portion, the front-end portion having a
first pulse width t1 with a high-power write level Pw and
starting from a middle-power erase level Pe, the multi-pulse
portion including a sequence of write pulses each having a
second pulse width t2 with the write level Pw and a third
pulse width t3 with a low-power base level Pb, the multi-
pulse portion having a given duty ratio z = t2/(t2 + t3), and

2007-1567 3
 the tail-end portion having a fourth pulse width t4 with the
base level Pb and ending at the erase level Pe;

setting a linear velocity of rotation of the medium at a
controlled speed; and

controlling the waveform when the linear velocity of rotation
of the medium is set in a high-speed range from 5 m/s to 28
m/s, such that the first pulse width t1 of the front-end portion
ranges 0.1T to 1T and the fourth pulse width t4 of the tail-
end portion ranges 0.2T to 1.3T.

Id. at col.12 l.65 to col.13 l.28.

The ’955 patent is directed to methods and apparatuses for formatting rewritable

optical discs. ’955 patent col.1 ll.10–14. For certain types of recording modes, a

rewritable disc must be formatted by dividing the recording area on the disc into fixed-

sized units, called packets. Id. at col.2 ll.14–19. If formatting occurs as a foreground

process, the optical disc drive is incapable of performing read or write commands during

the formatting period. Id. at col.2 ll.22–29. Thus, the ’955 patent teaches formatting as

a background process, such that the background formatting can be interrupted to carry

out a read or write command. The optical disc drive employs background formatting by

misinforming the host computer that it is not busy formatting, allowing the host computer

to send read or write commands to the drive. Id. at col.4 ll.20–24.

Asserted claim 8 of the ’955 patent states:

A formatting method for formatting a rewritable optical disc,
data being recorded on said optical disc by using a fixed
packet write method, said formatting method comprising the
steps of:

starting a formatting process for said optical disc as a
background process, the formatting process being
performed so as to fill a recording area of said optical disc by
packets having a fixed length;

2007-1567 4
 enabling execution of at least one of a recording process
and a reproducing process by interrupting the formatting
process and resuming the formatting process after the at
least one of the recording process and the reproducing
process is ended; and

ending the formatting process after the recording area to be
formatted has been filled by the packets having the fixed
length.

’955 patent col.13 ll.34–50.

The ’552 patent is directed to an apparatus and method for controlling the

velocity at which a disc drive spins an optical disc. Optical disc drives typically spin

discs at either a constant angular velocity (“CAV”) or a constant linear velocity (“CLV”).

’552 patent col.1 ll.19–24. In a CAV system, the disc completes the same number of

revolutions per unit time, regardless of where on the disc the laser beam is positioned.

Id. at col.1 ll.25–38. In a CLV system, the linear velocity of the disc is constant relative

to the laser beam, such that the disc is turning faster when the laser is near the center

of the disc and slower when the laser is near the outer edge of the disc. Id. at col.1

ll.39–46. The use of a CLV system increases the recording capacity of an optical disc

but requires more complicated machinery in the optical disc drive. Id. at col.2 ll.15–36.

The invention of the ’552 patent addresses this trade-off through the use of Zone-CLV.

Zone-CLV, as claimed in the ’552 patent, divides an optical disc into annular zones,

wherein each zone is recorded at constant linear velocity, but different linear velocities

are used for different zones. ’552 patent col.3 ll.5–68.

Asserted claim 1 of the ’552 patent states:

A method for controlling an information recording and/or
reproduction speed “f” and a rotation speed “n” of an optical
disk used in an information recording and/or reproduction
device, said optical disk having a plurality of tracks in the
form of concentric circles or a spiral, said information

2007-1567 5
 recording and/or reproduction device being adapted to
access said tracks by means of a light beam while rotating
said optical disk, thereby to optically record information on or
reproduce information from said tracks, said method
comprising the steps of:

dividing said tracks into a plurality of concentric annular
blocks which are different in radius from each other;

changing said information recording and/or reproduction
speed “f” in accordance with the radius of a track to be
accessed in such a manner that said recording and/or
reproduction speed “f” is constant within a block but different
as between said blocks depending on the block radii; and

changing said rotation speed “n” of said optical disk in such
a manner that f/(n-r) is constant, where “r” is the radius of
said track to be accessed.

’552 patent col.8 l.48 to col.9 l.3.

The ’755 patent is directed to methods of writing data to optical discs in multiple

sessions. ’755 patent col.3 ll.34–44. Optical disc drives typically store the data to be

written to the optical disc in a temporary memory called the buffer. Id. at col.1 ll.37–40.

Many optical disc drives can write data to a disc faster than the data is received by the

buffer, which can cause the buffer to go empty—a condition known as “buffer run.” Id.

at col.1 ll.54–63. In addition, at the time the ’755 patent application was filed,

conventional disc drive technology necessitated that an entire disc or track be written in

a single session. Id. at col.1 ll.29–33. Buffer run could thus cause such a drive to write

nonsense or dummy data to the disc, which could cause read errors or render the disc

unusable. Id. at col.1 ll.47–52. The methods of the ’755 patent solve this problem by

allowing the write operation to pause when the buffer runs low, which ensures that no

dummy data is recorded to the disc. Id. at col.2 ll.62–67.

2007-1567 6
 Asserted claim 1 of the ’755 patent states:

A method of recording on an optical disc recording media,
said method comprising the steps of:

transferring stored input information to an encoder;

transferring encoded information to a record circuit;

causing an input buffer to contain less than a threshold
amount of said input information; and

when said input buffer contains less than the threshold
amount of said input information, pausing said transferring of
said encoded information, to stop said record circuit at a first
point on said optical disk recording media while maintaining
said encoded information; and

wherein said record circuit does not write any run-out blocks
while paused.

’755 patent col.8 ll.51–65.

Quanta Computer Inc. (“QCI”) is a large manufacturer of notebook computers.

QCI does not, however, sell notebooks directly to consumers. It is an original

equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) and sells its products to other companies for retail

marketing. QCI is a one-third owner of Quanta Storage, Inc. (“QSI”), which

manufactures optical disc drives. Like QCI, QSI is an OEM. It does not sell direct to

consumers, but sells products such as optical disc drives to its U.S. customers,

including NU Technologies, who in turn sell to consumers. QCI also owns more than

ten percent of Quanta Computer USA, Inc. (“QCA”), which is a California company that

repairs notebook computers for branded computer companies. QCI, QSI, and QCA are

hereinafter collectively identified as “Quanta.”

2007-1567 7
 Ricoh filed suit against Quanta and NU, accusing them of directly and indirectly

infringing each of the patents in suit. 3 On summary judgment, the district court ruled

that (1) the asserted claims of the ’109 patent are obvious; (2) the asserted claims of the

’955 patent are not infringed; and (3) issues of material fact exist as to whether the

accused devices perform the methods of the asserted claims of the ’552 and ’755

patents. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1116, 1118, 1121, 1122. With

respect to whether the ’552 and ’755 patents are infringed by Quanta and NU, the

district court further ruled that (1) Quanta does not directly infringe under § 271(a)

because it neither sells nor offers to sell the patented methods; (2) NU does not directly

infringe under § 271(a) because Ricoh presented no evidence to show either that NU

tested the accused devices or that the tests it did undertake were conducted in a

manner practicing the asserted claims of these patents; (3) neither Quanta nor NU

contributorily infringe under § 271(c) because all of the devices sold have substantial

noninfringing uses; and (4) individually QSI 4 does not actively induce infringement

under § 271(b) because Ricoh failed to put forth evidence sufficient to create a material

issue of fact as to QSI’s intent. Id. at 1123–26. Accordingly, the court dismissed all of

Ricoh’s claims against Quanta and NU and entered a final judgment. Ricoh filed a

timely notice of appeal, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).

3
Defendant-appellees Quanta and NU filed third-party indemnification
claims against Philips Taiwan, Ltd., Philips Optical Storage, and Business Line Data.
The district court dismissed these claims as moot upon the dismissal of Ricoh’s claims
against Defendant-appellees. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1112.
4
Ricoh asserted a § 271(b) claim for active inducement against QSI only.
Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1124–25.

2007-1567 8
 DISCUSSION

Summary judgment is appropriate if “there is no genuine issue as to any material

fact and . . . the movant is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P.

56(c); see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247–48 (1986). A district

court’s grant of summary judgment is reviewed without deference, reapplying the same

standard as the district court. Micro Chem., Inc. v. Lextron, Inc., 318 F.3d 1119, 1121

(Fed. Cir. 2003). “In deciding whether summary judgment was appropriate, we view the

evidence in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion with doubts resolved

in favor of the opponent . . . .” Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. v. U.S. Surgical Corp., 149

F.3d 1309, 1315 (Fed. Cir. 1998).

I. The ’109 Patent

The district court ruled that claims 1 and 4 of the ’109 patent are obvious over

either of Ricoh’s European Patent Nos. EP 0898272 (“EP ’272”) and EP 0737962 (“EP

’962”). 5 Ricoh concedes that both patents disclose every limitation of claims 1 and 4—

i.e., the identical laser pulse sequence or write strategy—except “when the linear

velocity of rotation of the medium [e.g., an optical disc] is set in a high-speed range from

5 m/s to 28 m/s.” E.g., ’109 patent col.13 ll.24–26. However, the European patents

expressly claim a method “capable of recording information at a linear speed in a range

of 2.4 to 5.6 m/s.” EP ’272 p.16 ll.49–50; EP ’962 p.20 ll.48–50. Because the range of

recording speeds disclosed in the European patents overlaps the range claimed by the

5
Although the district court apparently relied on the European patents as
issued, the court properly noted that the corresponding patent applications are the prior
art to the ’109 patent by virtue of their publication more than one year prior to the filing
date of the ’109 patent. In consonance with the district court’s opinion, we herein cite to
the patents as issued.

2007-1567 9
’109 patent, the parties do not dispute that the claims of the ’109 patent are presumed

obvious. See Ormco Corp. v. Align Tech., Inc., 463 F.3d 1299, 1311 (Fed. Cir. 2006)

(“Where a claimed range overlaps with a range disclosed in the prior art, there is a

presumption of obviousness.” (citing Iron Grip Barbell Co. v. USA Sports, Inc., 392 F.3d

1317, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 2004); In re Geisler, 116 F.3d 1465, 1469 (Fed. Cir. 1997))). This

presumption, however, “can be rebutted if it can be shown that the prior art teaches

away from the claimed range, or the claimed range produces new and unexpected

results.” Id. at 1311 (citations omitted). The district court rejected Ricoh’s expert

testimony offered to rebut the presumption, reasoning that “plaintiff . . . fails to explain

how the prior art ‘teaches away’ from its ’109 patent or how the ’109 patent provides

‘new and unexpected results.’” Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1115.

We agree.

On appeal, Ricoh attempts to rebut the prima facie obviousness of claims 1 and

4 of the ’109 patent by purportedly making separate arguments that EP ’272 and

EP ’962 teach away from the range of recording speeds claimed by the ’109 patent and

that the range of the recording speeds claimed by the ’109 patent produces unexpected

results in view of the teachings of EP ’272 and EP ’962. Both arguments, however,

stem from a single teaching in EP ’272:

when the “recrystallization upper-limit linear speed” of the
recording layer exceeds 5.0 m/s, the recording layer cannot
assume a complete amorphous state when information is
written therein. Thus, satisfactory signal properties cannot
be obtained.

EP ’272 p.7 ll.2–4. In its briefing to this court, Ricoh thus argues that EP ’272

“specifically states that its write strategy does not work at speeds above 5.0 m/s.”

2007-1567 10
 Ricoh’s arguments as to the teachings of EP ’272 are inapposite because the

recrystallization upper speed limit, as defined by EP ’272, is unrelated to the

effectiveness, at any speed, of the write strategy disclosed therein. “‘A reference may

be said to teach away when a person of ordinary skill, upon reading the reference,

would be discouraged from following the path set out in the reference, or would be led in

a direction divergent from the path that was taken by the applicant.’” Optivus Tech., Inc.

v. Ion Beam Applications S.A., 469 F.3d 978, 989 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (quoting In re Kahn,

441 F.3d 977, 990 (Fed. Cir. 2006)); see also In re Fulton, 391 F.3d 1195, 1201 (Fed.

Cir. 2004) (refusing to conclude that prior art disclosure taught away from the claimed

invention where the disclosure did not “criticize, discredit, or otherwise discourage the

solution claimed”). Here, EP ’272 teaches that the recrystallization upper-limit linear

speed is a physical characteristic of the particular phase change media—i.e., optical

discs having a specific composition—disclosed therein. EP ’272 p.6 ll.7–9 (stating that

the “‘recrystallization upper-limit linear speed’ of the recording layer of the optical

recording medium is a novel value for characterizing the recording medium, which was

discovered by the inventors of the present invention”). This physical characteristic

establishes an upper limit to the speed at which the phase change material of the

optical disc can be recrystallized. EP ’272 p.6 ll.3–4 (defining recrystallization upper-

limit linear speed as “an upper limit linear speed of a light beam which scans the

recording layer at which the recording layer can be recrystallized after being fused with

the application of the light beam thereto, and then cooled and recrystallized”). In

contrast, the asserted method claims of the ’109 patent are write strategies comprising

a specified sequence of laser pulses, not limited to use on a particular phase change

2007-1567 11
medium. Ricoh offers no explanation as to why EP ’272’s teaching of a particular type

of medium limited to use below 5.0 m/s would criticize, discredit, or otherwise

discourage a person of ordinary skill from using the write strategy of EP ’272 at speeds

beyond 5.6 m/s (the upper limit claimed by EP ’272) when writing to optical media not

limited to use below a speed of 5.0 m/s. Accordingly, there is no genuine issue of

material fact that EP ’272 does not teach away from using its disclosed write strategy,

which is the same write strategy claimed in the ’109 patent, in a high-speed range from

5 m/s to 28 m/s.

Ricoh relies on this same “teaching away” to support its assertions that the linear

speed range of 5 m/s to 28 m/s claimed in the ’109 patent is an unexpected result over

the teachings of EP ’272. As noted by Ricoh, Ormco does teach that the presumption

of obviousness can be rebutted if “the claimed range produces new and unexpected

results,” 463 F.3d at 1311 (emphasis added), but Ricoh argues that the claimed range is

the new and unexpected result. In this case, Ricoh does not dispute that EP ’272

discloses every limitation of claims 1 and 4 of the ’109 patent other than the

aforementioned linear speed range of the optical medium relative to the laser executing

the claimed write strategy. Rather, Ricoh attempts to argue that increasing the linear

speed of the optical medium in the ’109 patent is somehow an unexpected improvement

over the write strategy disclosed in EP ’272, even though Ricoh does not argue that the

write strategy differs in any way between the two patents. To the extent that Ricoh has

discovered that its previously disclosed write strategy is useful in a higher linear speed

range than initially recognized, Ricoh may be free to claim a method executed at this

higher speed unless that method is obvious over EP ’272. See, e.g., 35 U.S.C. § 100(b)

2007-1567 12
(stating that the term “process” includes “a new use of a known process”). However,

the mere understanding that the write strategy of the ’109 patent and EP ’272 is useful

in a faster but overlapping linear speed range is not the type of result that can rebut a

prima facie case of obviousness arising from the overlapping ranges. Such

development of the prior art is the quintessence of “ordinary skill” or “ordinary skill and

common sense” rather than patentable innovation. Cf. KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc.,

127 S. Ct. 1727, 1742 (2007). We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

II. The ’955 Patent

Each of asserted claims 8–12 of the ’955 patent requires the step of “starting a

formatting process for said optical disc as a background process.” E.g., ’955 patent

col.13 ll.21–22. The parties agree that a background process, as that term is used in

the ’955 patent, differs from a foreground process in that a background process “can be

interrupted at any time to allow another, higher priority process to be performed.”

Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1117. The district court examined the

evidence and concluded that Ricoh had presented no evidence of any process in the

accused devices that starts as a background process. Accordingly, the district court

granted summary judgment of noninfringement as to all asserted claims of the ’955

patent because none of the accused devices starts a formatting process of an optical

disc as a background process. Id. at 1118. On appeal, Ricoh argues that the district

court mistakenly read the claims as requiring that the formatting process for the entire

optical disc must start as a background process. It is Ricoh, however, that has

mistakenly read the district court’s opinion.

2007-1567 13
 Infringement of a method claim “occurs when a party performs all of the steps of

the process,” BMC Res., Inc. v. Paymentech, L.P., 498 F.3d 1373, 1379 (Fed. Cir.

2007), and Ricoh reads the district court’s opinion as improperly applying this standard.

In particular, Ricoh argues that the use of “comprising” in the preamble, plus the

indefinite article “a” to introduce “a formatting process,” indicates that an accused

formatting method with one or more additional foreground steps may infringe the claims

of the ’955 patent as long as at least one process begins as a background process.

Although the use of “comprising” in a claim’s preamble “raises a presumption that the

list of elements is nonexclusive,” the enumerated steps of a method claim must

nevertheless “all be practiced as recited in the claim for a process to infringe.” Dippin’

Dots, Inc. v. Mosey, 476 F.3d 1337, 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Accordingly, even under

Ricoh’s analysis, the process alleged to meet the background process limitation of

claims 8–12 of the ’955 patent must itself originate as a background process.

In this case, the district court found that the only evidence Ricoh presented of

infringement of the ’955 patent was two tests that Ricoh conducted. In both tests, an

optical disc drive started formatting the disc as a foreground process and later switched

the formatting to a background process. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at

1116–18. Importantly, Ricoh presented no evidence that the formatting process

occurring in the background was a different process than the process that started as a

foreground process. That is, the district court ruled that Ricoh had presented no

evidence that any process started as a background process. Id. at 1117–18. Before

this court, Ricoh similarly fails to cite a single piece of evidence to suggest that the

accused devices use two separate formatting processes, one of which starts in the

2007-1567 14
foreground and the other of which starts in the background. Accordingly, we conclude,

as did the district court, that Ricoh has failed to present evidence to create a material

issue of fact as to infringement of the ’955 patent.

III. The ’552 and ’755 Patents

As to both the ’552 and the ’755 patents, the district court ruled that there are

material issues of fact with respect to whether the accused devices practice the

methods of the asserted claims. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1121,

1122. Nevertheless, the district court dismissed Ricoh’s claims of infringement of the

’552 and ’755 patents against each of Quanta and NU, ruling that Ricoh had failed to

create material issues of fact as to direct or indirect infringement under the provisions of

35 U.S.C. § 271(a)–(c). Ricoh appeals on the grounds that the district court both

misinterpreted and misapplied the statute.

A. Direct Infringement

We first turn to Ricoh’s claims that Quanta directly infringed the ’552 and ’755

patents through the sale or offer for sale of software that causes the accused drives to

perform the claimed methods. The district court ruled that: “[b]ecause the claims

asserted in the ’552 patent and the ’755 patent disclose methods for writing and

recording rather [than] an actual device, to prove direct infringement, it is not enough for

plaintiff to show a sale or offer to sell of an accused device.” Id. at 1123 (citing NTP,

Inc. v. Research In Motion, Ltd., 418 F.3d 1282, 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2005)). In support of

this reading of NTP, the district court relied on this court’s opinion in Joy Technologies,

Inc. v. Flakt, Inc., 6 F.3d 770, 773 (Fed. Cir. 1993), which stated that “[t]he law is

unequivocal that the sale of equipment to perform a process is not a sale of the process

2007-1567 15
within the meaning of section 271(a).” Nevertheless, Ricoh argues that the sale of a

method can be distinguished from the sale of an optical drive practicing the method

because the software instructions that control the drive can be separated from the

hardware that actually carries out those instructions. Because NTP explicitly did not

decide the question of whether a “method claim may not be infringed under the ‘sells’

and ‘offers to sell’ prongs of section 271(a),” 418 F.3d at 1320–21, Ricoh invites this

court to provide an answer and hold that a party may directly infringe a method claim

under 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) by offering to include patented methods in software sold as

part of the accused devices.

The answer lies in the language of the statute, and we therefore begin with its

text. Section 271(a) of Title 35 sets forth the requirements of a claim of direct patent

infringement: “whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any

patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any

patented invention during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.” Ricoh

thus argues that the issue in this case is whether “any patented invention” includes

“process,” such that a party who sells or offers to sell a patented process infringes the

patent. As did the court in NTP, we conclude that we need not definitively answer this

question to conclude as a matter of law that Quanta did not sell or offer to sell the

invention covered by Ricoh’s method claims.

In this case, Ricoh has mistakenly confused software with a process as that term

has been interpreted by this court. As the court in NTP recognized, “a process is

nothing more than the sequence of actions of which it is comprised.” 418 F.3d at 1318.

This court has also stated that a process “consists of doing something, and therefore

2007-1567 16
has to be carried out or performed.” In re Kollar, 286 F.3d 1326, 1332 (Fed. Cir. 2002).

In contrast, software is not itself a sequence of actions, but rather it is a set of

instructions that directs hardware to perform a sequence of actions. See Microsoft

Corp. v. AT&T Corp., 127 S. Ct. 1746, 1754 (2007) (recognizing that software is “the

‘set of instructions, known as code, that directs a computer to perform specified

functions or operations’” (quoting Fantasy Sports Props., Inc. v. Sportsline.com, Inc.,

287 F.3d 1108, 1118 (Fed. Cir. 2002)); Microsoft Computer Dictionary 489 (5th ed.

2002) (defining “software” as “[c]omputer programs; instructions that make hardware

work.”); Alan Freedman, The Computer Glossary (9th ed. 2001) (defining “software” as

“[i]nstructions for the computer.”). Despite its arguments on appeal, Ricoh itself

impliedly acknowledges the distinction between a process and instructions to perform a

process in its statements to this court—“the software instructions that control Quanta’s

drives can be separated from the hardware that actually carries out those instructions.”

Appellant’s Br. at 41.

The cases noted here make clear that the actual carrying out of the instructions

is that which constitutes a process within the meaning of § 271(a). With this

understanding of “process” in mind, we agree with the reasoning of NTP that the

application of the concept of a sale or offer of sale to the actual carrying out of a

sequence of actions is ambiguous. 418 F.3d at 1319 (“‘[A] process is a series of acts,

and the concept of sale as applied to those acts is ambiguous.’” (quoting Minton v. Nat’l

Ass’n of Sec. Dealers, Inc., 336 F.3d 1373, 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2003))). Indeed, the

Supreme Court recently recognized that “a patented method may not be sold in the

same way as an article or device.” Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Elecs., Inc., 128 S. Ct.

2007-1567 17
2109, 2117 (2008) (holding that despite this difference, the doctrine of patent

exhaustion applied to method claims upon the authorized sale of a device embodying

those claims). However, because the allegedly infringing sale in this case was the sale

of software (i.e., instructions to perform a process rather than the performance of the

process itself), we need not determine whether a process may ever be sold so as to

give rise to liability under § 271(a). Accordingly, we hold that a party that sells or offers

to sell software containing instructions to perform a patented method does not infringe

the patent under § 271(a). Cf. Microsoft, 127 S. Ct. at 1753–55 (holding that as a set of

instructions, software is not a component of a patented device within the meaning of §

271(f) until it is reduced to a machine-readable copy).

We next turn to Ricoh’s § 271(a) claims against NU. Ricoh alleges that NU

directly infringed the ’552 and ’755 patents by testing the accused devices upon receipt

from Quanta. The district court ruled that Ricoh “failed to adduce any specific evidence

that [NU] tested any of the products accused of infringing the ’755 and ’552 patents or

that it tested them in a way that would constitute infringement.” Summary Judgment

Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1123. On appeal, Ricoh argues that the district court

mischaracterized the evidence against NU in two respects. First, Ricoh takes issue with

the district court’s conclusion that NU merely “tests some of its products, not all of

them.” Second, Ricoh argues that it presented evidence sufficient to create material

issues of fact as to whether NU’s tests were conducted in a manner that infringed the

’552 and ’755 patents. At the summary judgment phase, the “party with the burden of

proof on an issue must ‘provide evidence sufficient, if unopposed, to prevail as a matter

of law.’” L&W, Inc. v. Shertech, Inc., 471 F.3d 1311, 1318 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (quoting

2007-1567 18
Saab Cars USA, Inc. v. United States, 434 F.3d 1359, 1369 (Fed. Cir. 2006)). After

reviewing the deposition testimony of NU’s Rule 30(b)(6) witness, we agree with the

district court that Ricoh has failed to put forth evidence sufficient to create a material

issue of fact as to direct infringement of the ’552 and ’755 patents by NU.

B. Contributory Infringement

We now turn to Ricoh’s arguments that Quanta contributorily infringed the ’552

and ’755 patents by selling optical disc drives adapted to perform the patented

recording methods. The district court held that even though Quanta’s drives might be

capable of being used to infringe Ricoh’s patented processes by writing discs, there was

no liability for contributory infringement because the drives were also capable of

“substantial noninfringing use” within the meaning of § 271(c) because they could also

be used to read discs in a noninfringing manner. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F.

Supp. 2d at 1123–24. This is so, the district court held, even though it apparently

assumed that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Ricoh, indicated that

Quanta’s drives use separate hardware and embedded software modules to perform

the patented processes and that those components had no noninfringing use. For

purposes of this appeal, we must accept as true Ricoh’s evidence that Quanta’s drives

contain at least some distinct and separate components used only to perform the

allegedly infringing write methods. In this posture, this case thus presents an important,

and previously unresolved, question concerning the scope of liability for contributory

infringement, the construction of § 271(c), and the interpretation of the Supreme Court’s

decisions in Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 416

(1984), and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005).

2007-1567 19
 The doctrine of contributory infringement long predated the enactment of

§ 271(c). See, e.g., Wallace v. Holmes, 29 F. Cas. 74, 80 (No. 17,100) (C.C. D. Conn.

1871) (holding that the sale of an unpatented burner component intended for use in a

patented lamp combination contributorily infringed); see also Aro Mfg. Co., Inc. v.

Convertible Top Replacement Co., Inc., 377 U.S. 476, 485–88 & n.6 (1963). Enacted

as part of the Patent Act of 1952, § 271(c) was designed to codify the contributory

infringement doctrine “that previously had been developed by the judiciary.” Dawson

Chem. Co. v. Rohm & Haas Co., 448 U.S. 176, 179 (1980). 6 Section 271(c) provides:

Whoever offers to sell or sells within the United States or
imports into the United States a component of a patented
machine, manufacture, combination or composition, or a
material or apparatus for use in practicing a patented
process, constituting a material part of the invention,
knowing the same to be especially made or especially
adapted for use in an infringement of such patent, and not a
staple article or commodity of commerce suitable for
substantial noninfringing use, shall be liable as a contributory
infringer.

(emphasis added). The language of the statute incorporates the core notion that one

who sells a component especially designed for use in a patented invention may be

liable as a contributory infringer, provided that the component is not a staple article of

commerce suitable for substantial noninfringing use. As aptly summarized in the House

Judiciary Committee report accompanying the enactment of § 271(c), providing liability

for contributory infringement reflects that “[o]ne who makes a special device constituting

6
Although in Mercoid Corp. v. Mid-Continent Investment Co., 320 U.S. 661
(1944), the Supreme Court cast doubt on the continued existence of the contributory
liability doctrine, § 271(c) was enacted “for the express purpose of reinstating the
doctrine of contributory infringement as it had been developed by decisions prior to
Mercoid, and of overruling any blanket invalidation of the doctrine that could be found in
the Mercoid opinions.” Aro Mfg., 377 U.S. at 492.

2007-1567 20
the heart of a patented machine and supplies it to others with directions (specific or

implied) to complete the machine is obviously appropriating the benefit of the patented

invention.” H.R. Rep. No. 82-1923, at 9 (1952). The statutory language “offers to sell or

sells . . . or imports into the United States” applies not only to the bare sale of an

infringing component, but also to the sale of that component as part of a product or

device.

It appears to be undisputed that, assuming direct infringement is found, Quanta

would be liable under § 271(c) if it imported into or sold within the United States a bare

component (say, a microcontroller containing routines to execute the patented methods)

that had no use other than practicing the methods of the ’552 and ’755 patents. Such a

component, specially adapted for use in the patented process and with no substantial

noninfringing use, would plainly be “good for nothing else” but infringement of the

patented process. Grokster, 545 U.S. at 932 (internal quotation marks omitted).

It thus follows that Quanta should not be permitted to escape liability as a

contributory infringer merely by embedding that microcontroller in a larger product with

some additional, separable feature before importing and selling it. If we were to hold

otherwise, then so long as the resulting product, as a whole, has a substantial non-

infringing use based solely on the additional feature, no contributory liability would exist

2007-1567 21
despite the presence of a component that, if sold alone, plainly would incur liability. 7

Under such a rule, evasion of the protection intended by Congress in enacting § 271(c)

would become rather easy. A competitor who wished to sell hardware that would

enable infringement of a patented process could do so without incurring liability for

contributory infringement by selling a device that simply embedded the hardware for

practicing the patented process within other hardware that also performs another

process, or by combining the enabling hardware with other hardware before importing it.

Moreover, only the first person in the supply chain (in the example above, the

manufacturer who sells the microcontroller) could be liable for contributory infringement.

The person who bought that infringing component and assembled it into something else

would face no liability for contributory infringement, even if that component were good

for nothing but infringement. And most importantly, no § 271(c) liability could ever be

found where an infringing component is both manufactured and assembled into

something else by the same person. In many of these situations, the only remedy

would be against end users of the product for direct infringement. This result would be

contrary to what the Supreme Court recognized in Grokster as a fundamental purpose

of contributory infringement liability: because “it may be impossible to enforce rights in

the protected work effectively against all direct infringers, the only practical alternative

7
Ricoh offers a useful illustration of this arbitrary result in its brief. Consider
a hypothetical patented method of using an answering machine to take messages. If a
manufacturer of an infringing answering machine sells two versions of the device, a
stand-alone version and a version with a built-in telephone, consumers directly infringe
when they use either to carry out the patented message-taking method. Under the
dissent’s logic, however, the manufacturer would only incur contributory liability for the
stand-alone answering machine, and not for the version that is identical but for the
addition of a telephone.

2007-1567 22
[is] to go against the distributor of the copying device for secondary liability.” Grokster,

545 U.S. at 929–30.

Nothing in the Supreme Court’s decisions in Grokster or Sony requires the result

the dissent would reach today, and much counsels against it. While both of those cases

involved contributory infringement under copyright rather than patent law, the principles

are generally the same. First, in Grokster, the more recent decision of the two, the

Court was faced with a contributory infringement claim against the makers of peer-to-

peer file sharing software that was widely used to distribute and obtain copyrighted

musical works in an infringing manner. 545 U.S. at 919–24. Pertinent to the present

question, the Court explained that the staple article of commerce doctrine codified in

§ 271(c) “was devised to identify instances in which it may be presumed from

distribution of an article in commerce that the distributor intended the article to be used

to infringe another’s patent, and so may justly be held liable for that infringement.” Id.

While this presumption is fully justified by the sale of an item that can be used only to

infringe, the “equivocal conduct of selling an item with substantial lawful as well as

unlawful uses” does not give rise to the same presumption of an intent to infringe. Id. at

932.

The Grokster Court thus made clear that the purpose of the “substantial

noninfringing use” exception of § 271(c) is to allow determination of instances where the

intent to infringe may be presumed based on the distribution of a product that has an

unlawful use. Id. at 932–33. When a manufacturer includes in its product a component

that can only infringe, the inference that infringement is intended is unavoidable. While

selling a potentially infringing product where each component part thereof has a

2007-1567 23
substantial lawful use may well be “equivocal,” id. at 932, it is entirely appropriate to

presume that one who sells a product containing a component that has no substantial

noninfringing use in that product does so with the intent that the component will be used

to infringe. We are unable to read Grokster as suggesting that Congress intended §

271(c) to eliminate this presumption in such cases where an infringing component is

bundled together with something else.

Second, the noninfringing use analysis of Sony simply does not speak to these

facts. In Sony, the Supreme Court considered whether a manufacturer of video

cassette recorders could be held liable for contributory infringement when the VCRs

were used by consumers to record copyrighted works in an infringing manner. 464 U.S.

at 419–21. Concluding that the VCRs at issue were capable of and widely used for

noninfringing private time-shifting (that is, recording a television program to watch later),

a substantial noninfringing use, the Court held that sale of the VCRs to the public did

not constitute contributory infringement of the plaintiffs’ copyrights. Id. at 456.

Nowhere in the Sony opinion is it suggested that the VCRs accused of

contributing to infringement contained specialized, distinct components that could be

used only to infringe. The accused VCR could be used in two ways: to infringe a

copyright by building a “library” of broadcast movies, or in a substantial, noninfringing

way to “time-shift” a program for later viewing or to record an uncopyrighted program.

See id. at 443-446. Critically, the same tuner and recording features of the VCR would

be employed for either the infringing or the noninfringing use. Unlike the disputed facts

of the present case (as Ricoh presented them in response to a motion for summary

judgment), the Sony VCRs did not have recording components that could only be used

2007-1567 24
to infringe and separable, distinct playback components that did not infringe. Thus, the

Sony Court simply had no occasion to address the question at issue here. We are

unable to read Sony or Grokster as requiring the court to ignore the sale of a separable,

distinct infringing component because it is bundled together with a noninfringing

component before being distributed.

Similarly, the dissent’s reliance on Hodosh v. Block Drug Co., 833 F.2d 1575

(Fed. Cir. 1987), in considering only whether the Quanta drives “as sold” are capable of

substantial noninfringing use is misplaced. In Hodosh, the plaintiff held a process

patent on a method of desensitizing teeth with a composition containing potassium

nitrate and sued a manufacturer of potassium nitrate toothpaste for contributory

infringement. Id. at 1576. Although the accused toothpaste containing potassium

nitrate did not itself directly infringe Hodosh’s method patent, customers undisputedly

did so when using the paste to desensitize their teeth. Id. at 1576-77. As is relevant

here, the alleged infringer argued that the focus of the § 271(c) substantial noninfringing

use inquiry should be on the ingredient potassium nitrate, which was admittedly a staple

article of commerce with numerous noninfringing uses, rather than on the toothpaste as

a whole. Id. at 1578. We stated in Hodosh that the focus of the § 271(c) inquiry should

be on the toothpaste as “what was actually sold,” id., which the dissent understands as

compelling a determination of whether Quanta’s entire drive “as sold” has substantial

noninfringing uses. But this reading of Hodosh divorces the court’s holding from the

facts upon which it was rendered. In focusing on “what was actually sold,” the Hodosh

court rejected the argument that an otherwise infringing product may automatically

escape liability merely because it contains a noninfringing staple ingredient. Id. at 1578;

2007-1567 25
see also id. at 1579 (“At trial, for example, the toothpaste containing potassium nitrate

may be shown . . . to have a far narrower range of noninfringing uses (if any) than that

of potassium nitrate or pure toothpaste alone.”). The dissent here would do what

Hodosh forbad: it would insulate an infringing item by focusing only on its noninfringing

component. It does not follow from Hodosh that the inclusion of a component with

substantial noninfringing uses in a product that contains other components useful only

to infringe a process patent can or should defeat liability for contributory infringement

under § 271(c). As is the case with Sony and Grokster, the question before us was

neither present nor decided in Hodosh.

Finally, the potential for induced infringement liability in these situations is not a

practical substitute for contributory infringement liability. Unlike contributory

infringement, induced infringement liability under § 271(b) requires proof that “the

inducer [has] an affirmative intent to cause direct infringement.” DSU Med. Corp. v.

JMS Co., Ltd., 471 F.3d 1293, 1306 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (en banc as to section III.B); see

also Water Techs. Corp. v. Calco, Ltd., 850 F.2d 660, 668 (Fed. Cir. 1988) (Section

271(b) requires inducer to have “actively and knowingly aid[ed] and abett[ed] another’s

direct infringement.” (emphasis omitted)). The Supreme Court in Grokster addressed

the relationship between contributory and induced infringement. The Court made clear

that the sale of a product with substantial noninfringing uses is within a “safe harbor” for

purposes of contributory infringement. The sale of such a “safe harbor” product in and

of itself cannot establish induced infringement. Rather, the copyright owner or patentee

must show other “statements or actions directed to promoting infringement.” Grokster,

545 U.S. at 935. As discussed below, it may or may not be the case here that Quanta

2007-1567 26
has taken such acts directed at promoting the infringing use of its drives (such as

advertising their infringing writing capability or providing instruction as to infringing use),

and thus shown an intent to induce infringement. But it is incorrect to conclude as a

general matter that § 271(b) will provide a sufficient substitute for liability for the sale of

an infringing component under § 271(c).

We thus vacate the district court’s grant of summary judgment of no contributory

infringement and remand to the district court for further proceedings on the material

issue of fact of whether Quanta’s optical disc drives contain hardware or software

components that have no substantial noninfringing use other than to practice Ricoh’s

claimed methods, in which case contributory infringement may appropriately be found.

C. Active Inducement

Finally, we consider Ricoh’s claim that QSI actively induces infringement under

35 U.S.C. § 271(b), which states that “[w]hoever actively induces infringement of a

patent shall be liable as an infringer.” Specifically, Ricoh claims that QSI induced

infringement by its customers (e.g., Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Gateway) as well as the

end-users of the drives. The district court granted summary judgment of no inducement

on the grounds that Ricoh had not presented evidence sufficient to create a material

issue of fact as to whether QSI possessed the requisite intent that the patents be

infringed. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1124–26. The district court

considered several types of evidence of QSI’s intent—including QSI’s product

2007-1567 27
specification sheets, the fact that QSI fine tunes the firmware 8 used by the accused

drives for writing to optical discs using Zone-CLV, a presentation that QSI gave to Dell,

website instructions, and “the simple fact that defendant Quanta Storage ‘designs and

sells’ the accused devices”—and concluded that this evidence may establish that QSI

“may have known that its customers would perform the patented methods, but plaintiff

adduces no evidence that Quanta encouraged infringement by its customers.” Id. at

1125–26.

In its analysis, the court cited the law of this circuit that “‘[a]ctively inducing, like

facilitating, requires an affirmative act of some kind.’” Id. at 1125 (quoting Tegal Corp.

v. Tokyo Electron Co., 248 F.3d 1376, 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2001)). The court then reasoned

that a finding of inducement requires that the identified affirmative acts be

communicated in some fashion to the alleged direct infringer. E.g., id. at 1125

(“Although defendant Quanta ‘fine tunes’ the firmware with respect to [Zone CLV],

plaintiff adduces no evidence that customers are informed of this, so it is not clear how

this could encourage the customer to do anything.”). The court also relied on the

proposition that the “‘sale of lawful product by lawful means, with the knowledge that an

unaffiliated, third party may infringe, cannot, in and of itself, constitute inducement of

infringement.’” Id. at 1122 (quoting Dynacore Holdings Corp. v. U.S. Philips Corp., 363

F.3d 1263, 1276 n.6 (Fed. Cir. 2004)). For the reasons stated below, we conclude that

the district court’s reasoning was an incorrect application of the law of active

inducement.

8
“Firmware” refers to the software stored on the chips in QSI’s optical disc
drives. Summary Judgment Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1122.

2007-1567 28
 Initially, we note that a finding of inducement requires a threshold finding of direct

infringement—either a finding of specific instances of direct infringement or a finding

that the accused products necessarily infringe. ACCO Brands, Inc. v. ABA Locks Mfrs.

Co., 501 F.3d 1307, 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2007); Dynacore, 363 F.3d at 1275–76. However,

the district court found that material issues of fact exist as to whether and to what extent

direct infringement occurs during the normal use of Quanta drives. Summary Judgment

Order, 579 F. Supp. 2d at 1122. On this record, we therefore reject Quanta’s argument

that the district court’s summary judgment of no inducement can be affirmed on the

alternative basis that Ricoh has failed to make the requisite showing of direct

infringement.

The issue before us is whether Ricoh has introduced evidence sufficient to create

a material issue of fact as to Quanta’s intent that its drives be used to infringe the

method claims of the ’552 and ’755 patents. Again, we turn to Grokster and its analysis

of the law of active inducement. The Supreme Court began from the premise that when

an article is suitable for substantial noninfringing use, an evidentiary showing that the

defendant intended that the article be used for direct infringement is required. Grokster,

545 U.S. at 935. Specifically, liability for active inducement may be found “where

evidence goes beyond a product’s characteristics or the knowledge that it may be put to

infringing uses, and shows statements or actions directed to promoting infringement.”

Id. & n.10 (stating that this reasoning applies to § 271(b)).

Evidence of active steps . . . taken to encourage direct
infringement, such as advertising an infringing use or
instructing how to engage in an infringing use, show an
affirmative intent that the product be used to infringe, and a
showing that infringement was encouraged overcomes the

2007-1567 29
 law’s reluctance to find liability when a defendant merely
sells a commercial product suitable for some lawful use.

Id. at 936 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Of particular import to this

case, the Court then examined whether a showing of intent required evidence that the

accused indirect infringer successfully communicated a message of encouragement to

the alleged direct infringer and concluded that such a communication is not necessary:

Whether the messages were communicated is not to the
point on this record. The function of the message in the
theory of inducement is to prove by a defendant’s own
statements that his unlawful purpose disqualifies him from
claiming protection (and incidentally to point to actual
violators likely to be found among those who hear or read
the message). Proving that a message was sent out, then,
is the preeminent but not exclusive way of showing that
active steps were taken with the purpose of bringing about
infringing acts, and of showing that infringing acts took place
by using the device distributed.

Id. at 938 (citation omitted). Accordingly, the district court erred to the extent that it

discounted Ricoh’s evidence of QSI’s intent as failing to present evidence that QSI

communicated the nature of its actions to alleged direct infringers.

Similarly, the court erred in discounting evidence that QSI made a presentation to

Dell, which touted the advantages of the Quanta drives, on the grounds that the

presentation disclosed an algorithm rather than one of the claimed methods. The

potential relevance of the presentation is two-fold. First, the presentation is relevant to

the extent it indicates QSI possessed the requisite intent that its drives be used to

perform the infringing methods. Second, the presentation is relevant to the issue of

whether it encouraged Dell to use the drives in an infringing manner. That the

presentation may have failed to communicate any information regarding the patented

2007-1567 30
methods or the possibility of infringement does not render it irrelevant as evidence of

QSI’s intent.

We further conclude that the district court incorrectly analyzed other

circumstantial evidence presented by Ricoh in this case. In DSU Medical Corp. v. JMS

Co., this court explicitly relied on Grokster to clarify that specific intent to cause

infringement is required for a finding of active inducement:

It must be established that the defendant possessed specific
intent to encourage another’s infringement and not merely
that the defendant had knowledge of the acts alleged to
constitute inducement. The plaintiff has the burden of
showing that the alleged infringer’s actions induced infringing
acts and that he knew or should have known his actions
would induce actual infringements.

471 F.3d 1293, 1306 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (en banc as to Section III.B) (emphasis in original)

(quoting Manville Sales Corp. v. Paramount Sys., Inc., 917 F.2d 544, 553 (Fed. Cir.

1990)). DSU Medical further relied on Grokster to reaffirm the sufficiency of

circumstantial evidence to prove specific intent. Id. (“‘While proof of intent is necessary,

direct evidence is not required; rather, circumstantial evidence may suffice.’” (quoting

Water Techs. Corp. v. Calco, Ltd., 850 F.2d 660, 668 (Fed. Cir. 1988))). Moreover, both

DSU Medical and Grokster relied on prior decisions of this court establishing that

specific intent may be inferred from circumstantial evidence where a defendant has both

knowledge of the patent and specific intent to cause the acts constituting infringement.

See MEMC Elec. Materials, Inc. v. Mitsubishi Materials Silicon Corp., 420 F.3d 1369,

1378 n.4 (Fed. Cir. 2005); Water Techs., 850 F.2d at 668–69 (inferring intent from

knowledge of the patent and control over the manufacture of the infringing product and

citing 4 Donald S. Chisum, Patents § 17.04[4][d], at 17–52 (1984) for the proposition

that “design of infringing product may constitute active inducement”).

2007-1567 31
 At the outset, QSI does not dispute that it had knowledge of the ’552 and ’755

patents. Under Grokster, Water Technologies, and DSU Medical, QSI may therefore be

liable under § 271(b) if it had specific intent to cause infringement of the ’552 and ’755

patents by the manner in which the drives are caused to be used. See MEMC, 420

F.3d at 1378 n.4. Applicable to this analysis, Grokster recognized that a failure to

remove or diminish infringing features of a distributed product is relevant to a party’s

intent that those features be used for direct infringement. 545 U.S. at 939 & n.12

(noting that evidence of a failure to act, however, must be accompanied by other

evidence of affirmative acts); see also id. at 940 n.13 (“[T]he distribution of a product

can itself give rise to liability where evidence shows that the distributor intended and

encouraged the product to be used to infringe.”). Ricoh’s focus on the separability of

the allegedly infringing functionality from the noninfringing functionality of the Quanta

drives may, therefore, be relevant to whether QSI had a specific intent to encourage

another’s infringement.

In particular, QSI’s role as the designer and manufacturer of the optical drives in

question may evidence an intent sufficiently specific to support a finding of inducement.

As indicated above, Water Technologies inferred a specific intent to cause infringement

from a defendant’s knowledge of the patent and control over the design or

manufacturing of the product used for direct infringement. 850 F.2d at 668–69.

Moreover, Grokster recognized that providing instruction on how to engage in an

infringing use “show[s] an affirmative intent that the product be used to infringe.” 545

U.S. at 936. In this case, QSI has incorporated into its optical drives software that

instructs the hardware to perform a series of steps. Ricoh asserts that the only function

2007-1567 32
of certain software components is to instruct the drives to perform its patented methods.

See, e.g., Schlesinger Declaration at 11. Ricoh thus argues that QSI’s specific intent

that the ’552 and ’755 patents be infringed is shown by this affirmative act of

incorporating components whose sole purpose is to cause the drives to operate in a

manner that infringes the ’552 and ’755 patents under normal circumstances. To the

extent that the drives do contain components which are in fact separable from those

used to implement noninfringing functions, and to the extent that the components do not

in fact have a purpose other than the performance of infringing functions under normal

use conditions, such evidence would create a material issue of fact regarding QSI’s

intent that its drives be used to infringe the ’552 and ’755 patents, which could not be

decided on summary judgment.

Finally, although we have endeavored to articulate the legal principles under

which Ricoh’s inducement claims should be analyzed, we are unable to determine

whether issues of material fact exist in the first instance. Because the court discounted

Ricoh’s evidence on purely legal bases, we decline to assess the factual sufficiency of

that evidence as it impacts Quanta and NU’s motion for summary judgment.

Accordingly, Ricoh’s inducement claim against QSI is remanded for further

consideration consistent herewith. We further note that on remand, the issues and

proofs regarding QSI’s inducement of the manufacturer customers (e.g., Dell) may be

different from those regarding its inducement of end-use customers, and the outcome

on remand may be different for these groups.

2007-1567 33
 CONCLUSION

Those portions of the district court’s judgment that hold that: (1) the asserted

claims of the ’109 patent are invalid because Ricoh has failed to rebut the presumption

that they are obvious; (2) no party infringes the claims of the ’955 patent because Ricoh

has identified no formatting process that begins as a background process within the

meaning of the asserted claims; (3) Quanta does not directly infringe the ’552 or ’755

patents because § 271(a) does not prohibit selling or offering to sell software containing

instructions to perform a patented method; and (4) NU does not directly infringe the ’552

or ’755 patents because Ricoh has failed to present evidence sufficient to create a

material issue of fact on this issue are affirmed. However, the district court’s grant of

summary judgment of no contributory infringement under § 271(c) by Quanta is vacated

and remanded for further proceedings on the material issue of fact as to whether

Quanta’s optical disc drives contain hardware or software components that have no

substantial noninfringing use other than to practice Ricoh’s claimed methods. Similarly,

the district court’s grant of summary judgment of no inducement under § 271(b) by QSI

is vacated and remanded for consideration of whether a material issue of fact exists

with respect to QSI’s specific intent that the ’552 or ’755 patents be infringed by the use

of Quanta’s optical disc drives.

AFFIRMED-IN-PART, VACATED-IN-PART, AND REMANDED-IN-PART

COSTS

No costs.

2007-1567 34
 United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

2007-1567

RICOH COMPANY, LTD.,

Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.

QUANTA COMPUTER INC., QUANTA STORAGE, INC.,
QUANTA COMPUTER USA, INC., and NU TECHNOLOGY, INC.,

Defendant-Appellees,

and

BUSINESS LINE DATA, PHILIPS OPTICAL STORAGE, and
PHILIPS TAIWAN, LTD.,

Defendants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin,
No. 06-CV-0462, Chief Judge Barbara B. Crabb.

GAJARSA, Circuit Judge, dissenting as to Section III.B.

I agree with my colleagues with respect to the result and judgment reached, but I

must dissent as to that portion of the opinion and judgment at Section III.B. Specifically,

I disagree with my colleagues’ decision to decide the difficult issue of contributory

infringement on the basis of policy concerns without due regard for the text of 35 U.S.C.

§ 271(c) and am of the opinion that the majority makes three errors in its analysis. First,

the majority ignores the fact that Quanta does not sell or offer to sell the accused

components, as the term “sell” is used in § 271(c). Second, the majority opts for an

over-inclusive application of § 271(c) that directly contravenes Supreme Court guidance

on how this section ought to be interpreted. Third, the conduct to which the majority
objects relates to the design and manufacture of “components,” even though § 271(c)

only addresses the act of selling a component. For each of these reasons, I dissent

from the majority opinion as to Section III.B; summary judgment of no contributory

infringement was proper in this case.

First, § 271(c) imposes contributory infringement liability on “[w]hoever offers to

sell or sells within the United States or imports into the United States a component of a

patented machine, manufacture, combination or composition, or a material or apparatus

for use in practicing a patented process, constituting a material part of the

invention . . . .” 35 U.S.C. § 271(c). In this case, the asserted claims of the ’552 and

’755 patents are directed to methods of writing data to optical discs. The district court

reasoned that the accused devices, in addition to writing data to optical discs, were also

capable of reading data from optical discs, and the court concluded that the accused

devices were therefore suitable for a substantial noninfringing use. Ricoh Co. v. Quanta

Computer, Inc., No. 06-C-462-C, slip op. at 31 (W.D. Wisc. Aug. 21, 2007) (“Summary

Judgment Order”). Accordingly, the court ruled that Quanta did not contributorily

infringe the ’552 and ’755 patents. Id. On appeal, Ricoh asserts that because the

reading function is wholly separable from the writing function of the accused drives—

i.e., Quanta could have sold read-only drives or drives lacking the features accused of

infringing the patents 1 —Quanta cannot avoid liability for contributory infringement

1
Ricoh’s liability expert, T.E. Schlesinger, stated that “the electronic
circuitry, firmware elements, and other components of the accused Quanta drives that
[allegedly perform the methods of the ’552 and ’755 patents] have no practical use other
than” performance of those methods. Declaration of T.E. Schlesinger in Support of
Ricoh’s Opposition to Quanta’s Motion for Summary Judgment at 11 (hereinafter
“Schlesinger Declaration”).

2007-1567 2
simply by putting those functions together in the same box. But irrespective of whether

the hardware and software components of Quanta’s drives identified by Ricoh constitute

a separable component or a material or apparatus for use in practicing Ricoh’s method

claims, it is undisputed that Quanta has neither offered for sale nor sold these

components as the term “sale” has been interpreted by this court.

The unmistakable holding of Hodosh v. Block Drug Co., Inc., 833 F.2d 1575

(Fed. Cir. 1987), is that “offers to sell or sells” in § 271(c) refers to “the material the

accused actually sells.” Id. at 1578. In Hodosh, the question was whether the sale of

unpatented toothpaste, which was used by consumers to practice a patented method,

would constitute contributory infringement under § 271(c) if the sales were made by a

party other than the patentee. One party argued that such a sale would not constitute

contributory infringement because the toothpaste contained the staple article potassium

nitrate. In rejecting this argument, the court did not hold, as the majority here suggests,

“that an otherwise infringing product may automatically escape liability merely because

it contains a noninfringing staple ingredient.” Rather, the court focused on the language

of the statute and held that

the language of § 271(c) . . . deals with the material actually
sold by the accused and the uses made of it by its
purchasers. Section 271(c) requires examination of the
patented method only in determining whether the material
the accused actually sells constitutes a material part of the
invention and is known by the accused to be especially
made or adapted for use in infringing the patent. Neither
party here “sells” potassium nitrate, and Block’s attempted
limitation of the staple/nonstaple inquiry to that mere
ingredient would eliminate the § 271(c)-mandated inquiries
relating to whether what was actually sold was a material
part of the invention and whether the seller knew that what
was actually sold was especially made or adapted for use in
infringement of the patent.

2007-1567 3
Hodosh, 833 F.2d at 1578 (footnote omitted) (emphasis added). In the present case,

neither party “sells” components adapted to perform Ricoh’s patented write methods.

They sell optical disc drives capable of reading discs, writing in a noninfringing manner,

and writing in an allegedly infringing manner. The majority’s attempted limitation of the

staple/nonstaple inquiry to one mere component of the optical disc drives sold by

Quanta (1) requires an inappropriate factual finding, as neither did the district court find

nor does the record presented to us on appeal demonstrate that Quanta’s optical disc

drives include a wholly separable infringing component; and (2) would eliminate the

§ 271(c)-mandated inquiry relating to whether what was actually sold was suitable for a

substantial noninfringing use.

Second, the majority’s interpretation of § 271(c) subjugates the public interest in

access to unpatented devices to a patentee’s interest in realizing economic reward from

a patented method. In Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464

U.S. 416 (1984), the Supreme Court reasoned that “when a charge of contributory

infringement is predicated entirely on the sale of an article of commerce that is used by

the purchaser to infringe a patent, the public interest in access to that article of

commerce is necessarily implicated.” Id. at 440. As to the balance of that public

interest against the private right of a patent owner, “‘the patent statute[] makes reward

to the owner a secondary consideration.’” Id. at 429 (quoting United States v.

Paramount Pictures, 334 U.S. 131, 158 (1948)). Thus, to strike the appropriate

balance, the Court has stated that the “‘sale of an article which though adapted to an

infringing use is also adapted to other and lawful uses, is not enough to make the seller

a contributory infringer,’” reasoning that “‘[s]uch a rule would block the wheels of

2007-1567 4
commerce.’” Sony, 464 U.S. at 441–42 (quoting Henry v. A.B. Dick Co., 224 U.S. 1, 48

(1912), overruled on other grounds, Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg.,

243 U.S. 502, 517 (1917)).

Moreover, in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, LTD, 545 U.S. 913

(2005), although a copyright case, the Supreme Court explicitly stated that the purpose

of the contributory infringement doctrine was to presume an intent that a product be

used to infringe another’s patent. Id. at 932 (“The doctrine was devised to identify

instances in which it may be presumed from distribution of an article in commerce that

the distributor intended the article to be used to infringe another’s patent, and so may

justly be held liable for that infringement.”). Accordingly, “where an article is ‘good for

nothing else’ but infringement, there is no legitimate public interest in its unlicensed

availability, and there is no injustice in presuming or imputing an intent to infringe.” Id.

(citation omitted) (quoting Canda v. Mich. Malleable Iron Co., 124 F. 486, 489 (6th Cir.

1903)). As ensconced in § 271(c), the doctrine of contributory infringement “absolves

the equivocal conduct of selling an item with substantial lawful as well as unlawful uses,

and limits liability to instances of more acute fault than the mere understanding that

some of one’s products will be misused. It leaves breathing room for innovation and a

vigorous commerce.” Id. at 932–33.

Despite the Supreme Court’s rationale of contributory infringement that favors

public access to unpatented goods, the majority here adopts an over-inclusive

interpretation of § 271(c) that fails to heed the high Court’s caution. In particular, the

majority’s expansive interpretation of the phrase “offers to sell or sells” subjects not only

Quanta to contributory infringement liability, but also Dell, HP and any other reseller of

2007-1567 5
Quanta’s drives. These resellers come within the majority’s reading of § 271(c) even

though their only activity is to sell an unpatented optical disc drive (or even an entire

computer system) that has multiple functions, only one of which is alleged to practice

Ricoh’s claimed methods. Thus, whereas the majority seeks to avoid situations in

which “the only remedy would be against end users of the product,” it opts for a rule that

captures every seller in the chain of commerce for a given unpatented product. The

majority’s proposed rule would burden the wheels of commerce and would give undue

regard to the limited monopoly of the patent statute at the expense of the public

interests identified by the Supreme Court.

Third, § 271(c) imposes contributory infringement liability based solely on offering

to sell or selling an unpatented good, but the majority’s analysis is (on its face) driven by

a concern for activities other than such sales. For example, the majority takes issue

with my analysis of § 271(c), because “Quanta may escape liability as a contributory

infringer merely by embedding that microcontroller in a larger product with some

additional, separable feature before importing and selling it.” Nothing in § 271(c) can be

read as directed to the non-sale activity of embedding components in larger products.

Rather § 271(c) is concerned only with the sale of either the component or the larger

product—under the straightforward analysis of Hodosh, Quanta has not sold the

component (to the extent a separable component exists), only the larger product.

Similarly, the majority recognizes that “no § 271(c) liability could ever be found where an

infringing component is both manufactured and assembled into something else by the

same person.” Obviously, § 271(c) does not impose liability for manufacturing

unpatented components, and the majority’s efforts to target this activity under a

2007-1567 6
provision concerned solely with an offer to sell or sale is misguided under the plain

language of the statute.

In sum, my judgment is that the majority’s analysis in Section III.B is flawed

according to the language of the statute; the balance of interests contemplated by the

statute, as that balance has been addressed by the Supreme Court; and the types of

activities to which the statute is properly addressed. I would affirm the district court for

these reasons.

2007-1567 7