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Ropes & Gray Achieves Complete Victory in Patent Infringement Case on behalf of RouteOne
Judge Applies 'Machine' Prong of Bilski Test
July 9, 2009
On July 8, 2009, U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford of the Central District of California ended more than 5 1/2 years of litigation against Ropes & Gray's client, RouteOne, by granting summary judgment in the case of DealerTrack v. RouteOne LLC, et al. and invalidating the last of DealerTrack’s three patents in suit.
Judge Guilford found that DealerTrack's '427 patent was invalid due to a failure to claim patentable subject matter under the Bilski standard articulated recently by the Federal Circuit. This is believed to be just the second case in which a federal court has invalidated a patent based on the "machine" prong of the "machine-or-transformation" test of Bilski.
This latest summary judgment win follows the grant in October 2008 of two other summary judgment motions brought by the Ropes & Gray team representing RouteOne that invalidated one other patent of DealerTrack and held that RouteOne had not infringed a second patent.
“This was a ‘bet-the-company’ case for our client,” said Laurence Rogers, a partner in Ropes & Gray's Intellectual Property Group who led the winning team. “RouteOne's entire business was being targeted by these patents. We are enormously pleased that we were successful on the merits of this case on summary judgment, which saved RouteOne the expense of a jury trial."
The patent infringement case was brought against RouteOne in January 2004. RouteOne, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, operates a web-based credit application management system used by automotive dealers to send credit applications of buyers to banks and other finance sources. RouteOne is owned by the financing arms of Ford Motor Company, Toyota, General Motors and Chrysler.
“We are very pleased, but not surprised, about the resolution of this case,” said Mike Jurecki, the CEO of RouteOne. “We remain steadfast in our original position, announced in January 2004, that we do not, nor have we ever, infringed any valid patent owned by DealerTrack. We are highly confident that we will continue to prevail in any future court action on the matter.”
The Ropes & Gray team included New York partners Laurence S. Rogers, Jesse J. Jenner, Ching-Lee Fukuda and Kenneth B. Herman, as well as associates Brian P. Biddinger, Jordan S. Adler and Derek M. Kato.
©2010 Ropes & Gray LLP. All rights reserved.
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