Patent Law

Not Called Out

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

4,924,496 claims caller ID, using means-plus-function claims: look up a name for a number while the phone is ringing. There's a claimed "means for comparing the detected incoming telephone number with said directory of telephone numbers to identify the party associated with the incoming call number." Not exactly rocket science there, even back in 1988 when the patent was filed. Sued for '496 over its iPhone, Apple wanted summary judgment indefiniteness, for failing to disclose an algorithm for comparing. Unconvinced, the Massachusetts magistrate judge on the case blew that off. Tell it to the jury, she wrote.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on July 07, 2009 (boomark / email).