By: Mel R. Quintos

Zeroclick, LLC sued Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that Apple Inc. infringed claims 2 and 52 of its U.S. Patent No. 7,818,691 (the ‘691 patent) and claim 19 of its U.S. Patent No. 8,549,443 (the ‘443 patent). The district court found Zeroclick’s asserted claims invalid reasoning that the claims recited “means-plus-function” terms for which the specifications do not disclose sufficient structure, and thus failed to meet 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6 requirements.

Zeroclick appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and argued that the district court erred in interpreting the relevant claim terms as means-plus function limitations. On June 1, 2018, the Federal Circuit decided the case of Zeroclick, LLC v. Apple Inc. —click here to read more—