Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Data Storage Claims Indefinite for Failure to Disclose "Sufficient Algorithmic Structure"

The court granted in part defendant's motion for summary judgment of indefiniteness as to plaintiff's data storage patent to the extent it claimed a "means for creating a vertical partition for each and every column of the database table . . . " "Given the narrowly recited function of 'creating a vertical partition for each and every column of the database table, each vertical partition having data values for only a single column of the database table,' the broad disclosure of a 'table-level object' and the function it performs is not sufficient algorithmic structure. The disclosure of a 'table-level object' fails to identify the data structures and methods that act on those structures. The specification merely provides a non-specific reference to a software tool and fails to disclose the algorithm being executed to break down the data."

Sybase, Inc. v. Vertica Systems, Inc., 6-08-cv-00024 (TXED May 13, 2010, Memorandum Opinion & Order) (Davis, J.)

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