Summary Judgment of Patent Non-Infringement May Be Granted Without Evidence of Non-Infringement

Case: Exigent Technology, Inc. v. Atrana Solutions, Inc., Case No. 05-1338 (Fed. Cir. 3/22/06)

The One Sentence Summary: Although district court court could grant summary judgment of non-infringement without evidence of non-infringement, its decision, without a final judgment, did not moot the parties' settlement agreement.


What They Were Fighting About: Patentee alleged defendant infringed its patent for a "multi-function transaction processing system" for various uses, including credit card purchases and pre-paid phone card services.

Federal Circuit Holdings:

• Nothing more is required to obtain a summary judgment of non-infringement than a motion stating that the patentee had no evidence of infringement and pointing to specific ways in which accused systems did not meet the claim limitations. Evidence of non-infringment is not required.
• Affirms district court's construction of the term "payment authority" as data input by the consumer representing the monetary value of the transaction and the consumer's authorization for payment. Because defendant's system did not meet this limitation, it was entitled to summary judgment of non-infringement.
• Patentee failed to set forth any argument or evidence of infringement and no evidence of the accused device was ever submitted on summary judgment.
• Affirms denial of patentee's Rule 56(f) motion and request for further discovery before responding to the summary judgment motion where patentee had received two extentions of time to respond and had not shown why additional discovery was necessary.
• Reverses district court's holding that patentee's motion to enforce a settlement agreement reached before the entry of final judgment was moot. Remands and directs district court to consider whether the agreement (in the form of a term sheet) was enforceable.