Touchpads Infringe, Preliminary Injunction Granted

Posted on | April 23, 2008 | No Comments

2008-1310 Elantech v. Synaptics
ND/CA 06-01839

Synaptics appeals Judge Charles Breyer’s Orders granting plaintiff partial summary judgment on infringement, entering a preliminary injunction, and the claims construction decision on which summary judgment is based.  The case involves numerous Elantech patents related to touchpads, but the one on which summary judgment was granted is 5,825,352, and only against one of the accused products, touchpads using the "Type 2 Code."

Infringement.  The patent is entitled "Multiple Fingers Contact Sensing Method for Emulating Mouse Buttons and Mouse Operations on a Touch Sensor Pad."  Claim 18 contains two elements, a "means for scanning the touch sensor . . ." and "a means for providing an indication of the simultaneous presence of two fingers. . . ."  Although the corresponding parts of Synaptics’ touchpad are redacted in the Order, the court found infringement of this claim. 

The court also found that Synaptics had sold the product in the U.S.:

Elantech engineers purchased computers with Synaptics touchpads in the United States. . . .Such evidence supports an inference of sales of the infringing product in the United States.  Synaptics does not offer any evidence to dispute this inference.

Preliminary Injunction.  The court then issued a preliminary injunction relating to Type 2 Code products, finding all 4 factors weighing in favor of plaintiff.  On likelihood of success, the court just found infringement and also dispensed with validity challenges.  In particular, the court noted that the obviousness argument was based on two patents considered by the examiner.  As such, Synaptics faced a higher burden, one it did not carry.

The court then presumed irreparable harm based on infringement, and noted that Synaptics did not dispute the balance of harm or public interest factors.

Documents:

2008-1310_Elantech_Order.pdf
   

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