`
`CIVIL ACTION NO.
`2:19-CV-123-JRG
`MARSHALL, TEXAS
`
`IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
`FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
`MARSHALL DIVISION
`)(
`)(
`)(
`)(
`)(
`SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
`)(
`9:03 A.M.
`)(
`PRETRIAL HEARING
`BEFORE THE HONORABLE JUDGE RODNEY GILSTRAP
`UNITED STATES CHIEF DISTRICT JUDGE
`
`VOCALIFE LLC
`
`VS.
`
`AMAZON.COM, INC., ET AL.
`
`FOR THE PLAINTIFF: (See Attorney Attendance Sheet docketed
` in minutes of this hearing.)
`
`FOR THE DEFENDANTS:(See Attorney Attendance Sheet docketed
` in minutes of this hearing.)
`
`COURT REPORTER:
`
`Shelly Holmes, CSR, TCRR
`Official Reporter
`United States District Court
`Eastern District of Texas
`Marshall Division
`100 E. Houston Street
`Marshall, Texas 75670
`(903) 923-7464
`
`(Proceedings recorded by mechanical stenography, transcript
`produced on a CAT system.)
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`IPR PETITION
`US RE48,371
`Sonos Ex. 1039
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`
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`98
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`saw was the State of Texas and an arrow above it.
`MR. RUBINO: Yes, Your Honor.
`THE COURT: He's as good an artist as I am.
`MR. RUBINO: Yes, Your Honor, that was the slide.
`And so the question there is whether Mr. McAlexander had
`some admission in his deposition, and Defendant put up a
`slide with his deposition testimony.
`If I could, Mr. Iturralde, are you able to put up
`the depo testimony?
`MR. ITURRALDE: Yes.
`MR. RUBINO: And while Mr. Iturralde is putting up
`the depo testimony, I would like to just mention -- and
`this is in our briefs -- that Mr. McAlexander, on Page 189,
`Lines 1 through 5 of his deposition, testified -- and
`I'll -- I'll go back a second.
`The citation that Defendants were putting up was
`in the context of an invalidity discussion. When
`Mr. McAlexander addressed this limitation, the spatial
`location limitation in the context of infringement, he
`clarified that the limitation requires estimating the
`location of a target sound signal, which is not the
`question that was asked to him earlier in his deposition
`about estimating spatial location.
`And when it comes to estimating a spatial
`location -- or comes to estimating the location of the
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`99
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`target sound signal, Mr. McAlexander says that azimuth is
`sufficient. It gives you an indication of where in space
`it may be located along an azimuth, but it doesn't identify
`the location. It just identifies direction for which sound
`is launched, but it -- sorry, this is not the right -- this
`is not the right citation.
`189, please.
`If we look at the question preceding -- 189.
`MR. FABRICANT: 189.
`MR. ITURRALDE: Sorry, I don't have -- I don't
`have that.
`MR. RUBINO: Oh, sorry.
`Well, anyway, on Page 189 of Mr. McAlexander's
`deposition, he indicates that spatial -- that azimuth is
`sufficient for estimating the location of a target sound
`signal. And that was specifically with regard to the
`question of whether an azimuth is sufficient to meet that
`limitation of -- of the claim for purposes of infringement.
`And so here we have, if anything, a question of
`whether Mr. McAlexander's statements were consistent across
`his deposition, which just resolves into a question of
`cross-examination for the trier of fact, Your Honor.
`THE COURT: All right. What else, Mr. Rubino?
`MR. RUBINO: That's it for me, Your Honor, unless
`the Court has any further questions.
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`THE COURT: Anything further from the Plaintiff in
`response to the Defendants' motion?
`MR. RUBINO: No.
`THE COURT: If not, I'll hear rebuttal from
`Defendant.
`MR. RE: I -- on the point on the spatial
`location, I think even the deposition is replete with the
`expert using location and direction in different ways. And
`regardless of whether he opined on infringement with one
`definition, he can't use another definition on invalidity.
`So we do have this legal tussle of the expert
`sometimes using one definition and sometimes using another.
`And even the clip that Mr. Rubino was going to
`show showed exactly that. He was distinguishing between
`azimuth or direction versus location, Kansas/Canada versus
`north. Those are two different things.
`And the claim language controls. So regardless of
`what he thinks, we still have two words in the claim that
`are different words, and they should have different
`meanings. And that's -- that's the legal problem.
`The other legal problem I want to raise is on the
`Doctrine of Equivalents. It's -- the opinion of the expert
`really has no play when we're having a legal bar that the
`amendment includes the words that are clearly part of their
`Doctrine of Equivalents argument, which is digital signal
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