throbber
Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 1 of 16
`
`IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
`FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
`WACO DIVISION
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Civil Action No. 6:22-cv-31-ADA
`
`
`
`JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
`
`Plaintiff,
`
`Defendant.
`
`FLYPSI, INC. (D/B/A FLYP),
`
`
`vs.
`
`
`GOOGLE LLC,
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`FLYPSI, INC.’S OPPOSED MOTION TO STRIKE DEFENDANT’S ANSWER TO
`SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT
`OR TO DISMISS DEFENDANT’S INEQUITABLE CONDUCT DEFENSE
`
`i
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 2 of 16
`
`
`I.
`
`II.
`
`III.
`
`IV.
`
`TABLE OF CONTENTS
`
`Page
`
`INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT ........................................ 1
`
`BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 1
`
`A.
`
`B.
`
`Procedural History .................................................................................................. 1
`
`Google’s New Inequitable Conduct Allegations .................................................... 2
`
`STATEMENT OF THE LAW ............................................................................................ 4
`
`ARGUMENT ...................................................................................................................... 5
`
`A.
`
`B.
`
`The Court should strike Google’s answer to Flyp’s Second Amended
`Complaint because it is untimely, and Google did not seek leave to file it. ........... 5
`
`The Court should dismiss Google’s inequitable conduct defense because
`its underlying allegations do not meet the pleading standard under
`Exergen. .................................................................................................................. 6
`
`1.
`
`2.
`
`Google failed to address the “how,” “what,” and “where” elements. ......... 6
`
`Google failed to allege properly a specific intent to deceive the
`USPTO. ....................................................................................................... 9
`
`V.
`
`CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 10
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`i
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 3 of 16
`
`TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
`
`
`
`Page(s)
`
`Cases
`
`Applied Biokinetics LLC v CVS Pharmacy, Inc.,
`2022 WL 1192467 (W.D. Tex. Apr. 21, 2022) ..................................................................4, 6, 7
`
`Decapolis Sys., LLC v Epic Sys. Corp.,
`2021 WL 5908403 (W.D. Tex. Dec. 14, 2021) .....................................................................4, 5
`
`Devabhaktuni v. C.P.S.,
`2020 WL 4745048 (N.D. Tex. July 16, 2020) ...........................................................................4
`
`Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.,
`575 F.3d 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2009)..............................................................................................4, 6
`
`Flypsi Inc. v Dialpad, Inc.,
`2022 WL 3593132 (W.D. Tex. Aug. 22, 2022) .................................................................7, 8, 9
`
`Front Row Techs., LLC v. NBA Media Ventures,
`LLC, 163 F. Supp. 3d 938 (D.N.M. 2016).................................................................................9
`
`U.S. ex rel. Mathews v. HealthSouth Corp.,
`332 F.3d 293 (5th Cir. 2003) .....................................................................................................4
`
`Mayeaux v. La. Health Serv. & Indem. Co.,
`376 F.3d 420 (5th Cir. 2004) .....................................................................................................5
`
`Stephens v. John Bean Techs. Corp.,
`2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 222847 (W.D. Tex. Dec. 12, 2018) .....................................................5
`
`Tafas v. Doll,
`559 F.3d 1345 (Fed. Cir. 2009)..................................................................................................8
`
`Tafas v. Kappos,
`586 F.3d 1369 (Fed. Cir. 2009)..................................................................................................8
`
`Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co.,
`649 F.3d 1276 (Fed. Cir. 2011)..................................................................................................9
`
`Statutes
`
`MPEP § 2001.06(c) ..........................................................................................................................8
`
`Other Authorities
`
`Fed. R. Civ. P. 9 .......................................................................................................................4, 5, 6
`
`
`
`ii
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 4 of 16
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`Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6)..............................................................................................................5, 10
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`Fed. R. Civ. P. 15 .............................................................................................................................5
`
`Fed. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(6)....................................................................................................................6
`
`
`
`
`
`iii
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 5 of 16
`
`I.
`
`INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT
`
`Seventy-five days after the deadline to amend pleadings in this case, Google belatedly filed
`
`an Amended Answer that attempts to add a new inequitable conduct defense for the very first time.
`
`ECF 118. Prior to this amendment, Google had never pleaded an inequitable conduct defense.
`
`Google did not seek leave from the Court to file this new defense out of time. The Court should
`
`strike Google’s untimely defense.
`
`Alternatively, even assuming for the sake of argument that Google’s defense was timely,
`
`Google’s pleading falls far short of the heightened pleading standard for inequitable conduct.
`
`Indeed, The Court dismissed similar allegations brought by Dialpad in the previously pending
`
`litigation (Case No. 6:21-cv-642-ADA); Google’s late defense echoes the same inequitable
`
`conduct allegations brought by Dialpad. Google’s defense is substantively deficient and should
`
`likewise be dismissed.
`
`II.
`
`BACKGROUND
`
`A.
`
`Procedural History
`
`In its Original Complaint, Flyp accused Google of infringing five patents (U.S. Patent
`
`Nos. 9,667,770; 10,051,105; 10,334,094; 11,012,554; and 11,218,585) based on functionality in
`
`Google Voice. See, e.g., ECF No. 1 (Compl.) ¶¶ 29-95. More specifically, Flyp accused Google
`
`Voice of incorporating Flyp’s patented technologies that allow for users to segregate
`
`communications across multiple phone numbers (e.g., a primary phone number and secondary
`
`phone number) on a single device, including solutions that provide for maintaining caller
`
`identification integrity when calls originate from a secondary telephone number. Id. ¶¶ 11-15.
`
`The Court entered an amended schedule, agreed to by all parties, which set a March 22,
`
`2023 deadline to amend pleadings. ECF No. 102. Although the Court subsequently entered two
`
`1
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 6 of 16
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`more amended schedules, those schedules were entered after this March 22, 2023 deadline and did
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`not change the now-lapsed deadline for amending pleadings. ECF No. 107; ECF No. 112.
`
`Flyp timely filed a Second Amended Complaint on March 22, 2023. ECF No. 103.
`
`Google’s response to the Second Amended Complaint was due on April 5, and it filed a motion to
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`partially dismiss the Second Amended Complaint on that date. ECF No. 108.
`
`On June 5, 2023, Google filed an amended answer to Flyp’s Second Amended Complaint,
`
`asserting a new defense based on purported inequitable conduct—seventy-five days after the
`
`Court’s deadline to amend pleadings and more than sixty days after Google had filed its responsive
`
`motion to dismiss. ECF No. 118. Google did not seek leave from the Court for the untimely
`
`pleading.
`
`B.
`
`Google’s New Inequitable Conduct Allegations
`
`The new purported inequitable conduct defense in Google’s untimely answer to Flyp’s
`
`Second Amended Complaint accuses the prosecuting attorneys and the named inventors Peter
`
`Rinfret, Ivan Zhidov, and Sunir Kochhar of failing to disclose Google Voice when prosecuting the
`
`asserted patents. ECF No. 118 at ¶ 13. Google concedes that Flyp identified Google Voice to the
`
`USPTO on November 9, 2021, when it withdrew the application that resulted in the ’585 Patent
`
`from issue and submitted a new information disclosure statement listing Google Voice as prior art.
`
`Id. ¶¶ 56, 61. Google, however, alleges that Flyp should have disclosed Google Voice “[d]uring
`
`the prosecution of the ’770 Patent and its parent patent applications” around July 2013 or June
`
`2014 (id. ¶¶ 39-40, 19) and “during the prosecution of the ’585 Patent and its parent patent
`
`applications before November 9, 2021” (id. ¶ 60). Google also generally alludes to the prosecution
`
`of other asserted patents in 2018 and 2019 without any specificity. E.g., id. ¶ 39.
`
`Google alleges that the Flyp inventors had knowledge about Google Voice because they
`
`purportedly downloaded and installed Google Voice “at various times between 2009 and 2017”
`2
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 7 of 16
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`and had “conduct[ed] a detailed analysis” of Google Voice by July 2013. Id. ¶¶ 16-17, 19. Google
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`bases these allegations on (1) Flyp’s response to Google’s Interrogatory No. 1 (ECF No. 118-1),
`
`(2) an August 2012 presentation by Mr. Rinfret that included information about Google Voice (the
`
`“2012 Flyp Presentation”) (id. ¶¶ 20-38), (3) a competitive market data document from October
`
`2014 that includes information about Google Voice (the “2014 Competitive Market Data”) (id. ¶¶
`
`41-43), and (4) the Google Voice invalidity charts from the then-pending Dialpad case that Dialpad
`
`served in November 2021 (the “2021 GV Claim Charts”) (id. ¶ 63).
`
`Flyp’s served its response to Google’s Interrogatory No. 1 on December 15, 2022 (ECF
`
`No. 118-1 at 33). Flyp produced the 2012 Flyp Presentation on April 25, 2022 (Sloan Declaration
`
`Ex. A at ¶ 2) and the 2014 Competitive Market Data on December 15, 2022 (id. ¶ 3). Dialpad
`
`served the 2021 GV Claim Charts in November 2021. And then Dialpad included them as an
`
`exhibit to Dialpad’s own insufficient inequitable conduct pleading in February 2022, which was
`
`publicly filed. (ECF No. 118-4 at 27 and ECF Header.) Google’s inequitable conduct allegations
`
`are accordingly based on some information it had a full year before filing its untimely defense. But
`
`in any case, the last documents, Flyp’s Interrogatory responses and the 2014 Competitive Market
`
`Data presentation, were produced to Google in mid-December 2022—nearly four months before
`
`the deadline to amend pleadings, and nearly seven months before its untimely answer to the Second
`
`Amended Complaint.
`
`Google’s inequitable conduct allegations do not identify any specific claim limitations for
`
`which it contends the purportedly withheld material about Google Voice was relevant. For each of
`
`the 2012 Flyp Presentation, the 2014 Competitive Market Data, and the 2021 GV Claim Charts,
`
`Google only identifies the documents generically and does not address how any specific
`
`information in the documents relates to specific claim limitations. Nor does Google allege with
`
`3
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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 8 of 16
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`particularity how the prosecuting attorneys’ or inventors’ respective purported personal knowledge
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`about using Google Voice qualifies as prior art or is material to any specific claim limitations.
`
` Other than conclusory statements that Flyp acted intentionally (see, e.g., ECF No. 181
`
`¶¶ 47, 49, 60, 62, 65), Google does not provide any factual allegations that (if true) would show
`
`Flyp acted with a specific intent to deceive the USPTO. Instead, Google relies for this purpose on
`
`general allegations that Flyp knew about Google Voice but failed to disclose it. See, e.g., id. ¶ 58.
`
`III.
`
`STATEMENT OF THE LAW
`
`Absent leave from the Court, an untimely pleading “has ‘no legal effect.’” See Decapolis
`
`Sys., LLC v Epic Sys. Corp., 2021 WL 5908403 at *2 (W.D. Tex. Dec. 14, 2021) (quoting U.S. ex
`
`rel. Mathews v. HealthSouth Corp., 332 F.3d 293, 296 (5th Cir. 2003)) (Albright, J.). Courts
`
`therefore “may properly strike” untimely pleadings. See id. (quoting Devabhaktuni v. C.P.S., 2020
`
`WL 4745048, at *2 (N.D. Tex. July 16, 2020)).
`
`Inequitable conduct “must be pleaded with particularity under Rule 9(b)” because it “is a
`
`species of fraud.” Applied Biokinetics LLC v CVS Pharmacy, Inc., 2022 WL 1192467, *1 (W.D.
`
`Tex. Apr. 21, 2022) (citing Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 575 F.3d 1312, 1326 (Fed.
`
`Cir. 2009) (Albright, J.)). To satisfy this standard, “a defendant must ‘identify the specific who,
`
`what, when, where and how of the material misrepresentation or omission committed before the
`
`PTO.’” Id. (quoting Exergen Corp., 575 F.3d at 1328). “Moreover, ‘a pleading of inequitable
`
`conduct under Rule 9(b) must include sufficient allegations of underlying facts from which a court
`
`may reasonably infer that a specific individual (1) knew of the withheld material information or of
`
`the falsity of the material misrepresentation, and (2) withheld or misrepresented this information
`
`with a specific intent to deceive the PTO.’” Id. (quoting Exergen Corp., 575 F.3d at 1328-29).
`
`4
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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 9 of 16
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`IV. ARGUMENT
`
`For the reasons below, the Court should either strike Google’s answer to the Second
`
`Amended Complaint as untimely or, alternatively, dismiss the new inequitable conduct defense
`
`set forth in that pleading under Rules 9(b) and 12(b)(6).
`
`A.
`
`The Court should strike Google’s answer to Flyp’s Second Amended
`Complaint because it is untimely, and Google did not seek leave to file it.
`
`The Court may properly strike untimely pleadings, including untimely responsive
`
`pleadings. See Decapolis Sys., 2021 WL 5908403 at *2. Google’s answer to Flyp’s Second
`
`Amended Complaint was untimely under both the Court’s schedule for this case and under the
`
`Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Google filed its answer to the Second Amended Complaint on
`
`June 5, setting forth for the first time in its pleadings an affirmative defense based on inequitable
`
`conduct. ECF No. 118. Given that Flyp filed the Second Amended Complaint on March 22,
`
`Google’s responsive pleading was due on April 5. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 15. The Court’s schedule
`
`for this case required Google to seek leave from the Court to file new pleadings after March 22.
`
`See ECF No. 102. Google’s Second Amended Complaint, and its assertion of an inequitable
`
`conduct defense, was untimely by months.
`
`Google did not seek leave from the Court for its untimely filing. If it had, it would not have
`
`been entitled to leave. “[P]roper reasons for denying leave to amend include ‘undue delay, bad
`
`faith, dilatory motive, repeated failures to cure deficiencies, or undue prejudice to the opposing
`
`party.’” Stephens v. John Bean Techs. Corp., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 222847, at *2-3 (W.D. Tex.
`
`Dec. 12, 2018) (quoting Mayeaux v. La. Health Serv. & Indem. Co., 376 F.3d 420, 425 (5th Cir.
`
`2004)) (Albright, J.). However, “[t]he touchstone for denial of leave to amend under Rule 15(a) is
`
`prejudice.” See id. Here, Google’s delay was plainly undue. It had the materials it relies for its
`
`inequitable conduct allegations—Flyp’s response to Google’s Interrogatory No. 1, the 2012 Flyp
`
`5
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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 10 of 16
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`Presentation, the 2014 Competitive Market Data, and Dialpad’s invalidity charts for Google
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`Voice—months before the deadline to amend its pleadings and assert new defenses. Sloan Decl.
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`at ¶¶ 1-3; ECF No. 118-1 at 33. There is no justifiable, good faith, and non-dilatory reason for
`
`Google failing to present this defense timely. And the prejudice to Flyp from Google’s untimely
`
`presentation is undue: the parties have exchanged and responded to several sets of discovery
`
`requests and interrogatories, several depositions have already been taken, and the parties have
`
`exchanged deposition topics under Rule 30(b)(6). Moreover, for the reasons described in Section
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`IV.B, supra, the amendment would be futile because it fails to meet the heightened pleading
`
`standard under Rule 9. With 10 weeks left in discovery, the parties should be focusing their energy
`
`and effort on timely and well-pleaded claims and defenses.
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`The Court should accordingly strike Google’s untimely answer.
`
`B.
`
`The Court should dismiss Google’s inequitable conduct defense because its
`underlying allegations do not meet the pleading standard under Exergen.
`
`If the Court does not strike Google’s answer to the Second Amended Complaint, it should
`
`nonetheless dismiss Google’s affirmative defense of inequitable conduct. The heightened pleading
`
`standard set forth in Exergen obliged Google to allege the “who, what, when, where, and how” of
`
`the purported material omission to the USPTO. See Applied Biokinetics LLC, 2022 WL 1192467
`
`at *1 (quoting Exergen Corp., 575 F.3d at 1326). And Google’s allegations must include sufficient
`
`facts from which the Court could reasonably infer that the relevant individuals knew of the
`
`withheld information and withheld the information with a specific intent to deceive the USPTO.
`
`See id. (citing Exergen Corp., 575 F.3d at 1328-29).
`
`1.
`
`Google failed to address the “how,” “what,” and “where” elements.
`
`In alleging at least “how,” “what” and “where,” Google failed its burden. See id. at *2. As
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`this Court recognized in the Dialpad case based on similarly deficient allegations as to similar
`
`6
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`

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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 11 of 16
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`references, these elements “require identification of ‘which claims, and which limitations in those
`
`claims, the withheld references are relevant to, and where in those references the material
`
`information is found.’” Flypsi Inc. v Dialpad, Inc., 2022 WL 3593132, *6 (W.D. Tex. Aug. 22,
`
`2022) (Albright, J.) (“Dialpad”). In Applied Biokinetics, for instance, the Court found that general
`
`allegations about withholding the identity of a prior art product were not sufficient to allege “what”
`
`was withheld—i.e., whether it was a physical sample or some specific documents. Applied
`
`Biokinetics LLC, 2022 WL 1192467 *1. Likewise, implications alone that the inventor had “mental
`
`knowledge” about the prior art product was not sufficient to allege “what” was withheld because
`
`the pleading did not explain how mental knowledge could serve as the basis for a rejection. See id.
`
`at *3 (“Unlike documents or physical prior art encompassed by 35 U.S.C. § 102, it remains unclear
`
`how CVS contends an applicant's own mental knowledge serves as prior art.”).
`
`Like Dialpad, Google has failed to identify the particular claims and limitations of the
`
`Asserted Patents that would not have been allowed. Instead, for most patents, Google’s allegations
`
`focus on whether Flyp should have generally identified the Google Voice product to the USPTO.
`
`To the extent Flyp discusses specific documents—the 2012 Flyp Presentation and the 2013
`
`Competitive Market Data—it does so only to suggest that the prosecuting attorneys and named
`
`inventors knew about Google Voice (see ECF No. 181 ¶¶ 20-38, 41-43), and not that any particular
`
`portions of those documents would potentially serve as the basis for rejecting the pending
`
`applications. And as in Applied Biokinetics, Google’s allegations do not explain how the alleged
`
`mental knowledge of the prosecuting attorneys or named inventors about Google Voice could
`
`serve as a basis for rejection.
`
`For the ’585 Patent, Google also alleges that Flyp should have submitted Dialpad’s 2021
`
`GV Claim Charts to the USPTO earlier than November 2021. This, too, is deficient. First, as
`
`7
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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 12 of 16
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`Google concedes, Flyp did submit various references related to Google Voice to the USPTO with
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`an Information Disclosure Sheet before the ’585 Patent was issued (ECF No. 118 ¶ 56), and
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`Google has not alleged plausibly how that material would have resulted in a rejection if it had been
`
`submitted earlier. Indeed, as this Court recognized in Dialpad, where the prior art itself is
`
`submitted, “the Court is apprehensive to find but-for materiality [due to the failure to submit claim
`
`charts] as the USPTO granted the ’585 Patent with the benefit of the disclosed underlying prior
`
`art.” Dialpad , 2022 WL 3593132 at *9. This is because it is unlikely that any information Google
`
`now relies on from Dialpad’s claim charts “is not cumulative of the information undisputedly
`
`disclosed to the USPTO.” Id. Like Dialpad before, Google “must identify, with specificity,
`
`particular portions of [the] Invalidity Claim Charts that, had they been disclosed, would have
`
`precluded the USPTO from granting the ’585 Patent. Simply pointing to the prior art has already
`
`proven insufficient. More must be done.” And Google has not done so here.1
`
` Moreover, as the Court explained in the Dialpad case, simply pointing to invalidity charts
`
`alone is insufficient because to satisfy the “where” requirement, Google must “identify the
`
`particular claims and limitations [in the asserted patent] that would not have been allowed” if Flyp
`
`had disclosed the 2021 GV Claim Charts. Dialpad, 2022 WL 3593132, *8. Here, Google sidesteps
`
`
`1 Moreover, Flyp again argues that it would be legal error for the Court to impose on Flyp a disclosure burden regarding
`invalidity claim charts that that the Patent Office itself has rejected. Over a decade ago, the Patent Office proposed
`regulations requiring applicants to “explain how each independent claim is patentable over the references” in certain
`situations. Tafas v. Doll, 559 F.3d 1345, 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2009). Those proposed rules, however, were enjoined by
`the court as improper. Id. at 1350–51. And thereafter, the proposed rules were explicitly withdrawn by the Patent
`Office. Tafas v. Kappos, 586 F.3d 1369, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2009). Now, Google’s inequitable conduct allegations
`attempt to reimpose this previously enjoined and withdrawn requirement (to disclose attorney argument mapping a
`prior art reference to a claim). Google cannot by fiat impose a disclosure burden that both the Patent Office and the
`Federal Circuit have rejected. The Court should not permit such an inequitable conduct claim and should instead rule
`consistently with the Patent Office’s actual regulations, which only specifically require disclosure of prior art but make
`no mention of claim charts. See MPEP § 2001.06(c) (“In particular, material information that is raised in trial
`proceedings that is relevant to related applications undergoing examination should be submitted on an Information
`Disclosure Statement for the examiner’s consideration. Examples of such material information include evidence of
`possible prior public use or sales, questions of inventorship, prior art, allegations of ‘fraud,’ ‘inequitable conduct,’ and
`‘violation of duty of disclosure.’” (emphasis added).
`
`8
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`
`

`

`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 13 of 16
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`its obligations to plead “where” and “how” by improperly pointing the Court to the 2021 GV Claim
`
`Charts as a whole. But see id. (“And if Dialpad believes that referring the Court to its 125-page
`
`Invalidity Claim Charts is sufficiently specific, it is sorely mistaken.”), *10 (“If the parties alleging
`
`inequitable conduct fail to cite specific claims in specific patents ‘that would be deemed
`
`unpatentable in light of undisclosed information,’ they have failed to allege materiality.” (quoting
`
`Front Row Techs., LLC v. NBA Media Ventures, LLC, 163 F. Supp. 3d 938, 986 (D.N.M. 2016))).
`
`Given that Google has failed to identify with particularly “what” was withheld from the
`
`USPTO, “where” the material information is purportedly found in what was withheld, and “how”
`
`the material information withheld would have led the USPTO to reject specific claims, Google has
`
`not met the pleading standard for inequitable conduct, and the Court should dismiss its defense.
`
`2.
`
`Google failed to allege properly a specific intent to deceive the USPTO.
`
`Google has also failed to plead sufficiently a specific intent by Flyp to deceive the USPTO.
`
`On this point, Google’s allegations fall into two categories. The first category comprises rote and
`
`conclusory statements that Flyp omitted information with a specific intent to deceive. See, e.g.,
`
`ECF No. 118 ¶¶ 47 (“On information and belief, the decision not to disclose Google Voice to the
`
`PTO was made with the intent to deceive.”), 49, 60, 62, 65. The Court should disregard these
`
`allegations because “mere conclusory statements . . . do not suffice.” See Dialpad, 2022 WL
`
`3593132, *2. The second category has only one example: an allegation that Flyp knew about
`
`Google Voice from invalidity contentions in the Dialpad case, but “intentionally waited” before
`
`disclosing Google Voice to the USPTO. See ECF No. 118 ¶ 58. Yet as the Court explained in the
`
`Dialpad case, “this is exactly what the Federal Circuit cautioned against: ‘Proving that the
`
`applicant knew of a reference, should have known of its materiality, and decided not to submit it
`
`to the PTO does not prove specific intent to deceive.’” Id. at *11 (quoting Therasense, Inc. v.
`
`Becton, Dickinson & Co., 649 F.3d 1276, 1292, 1295 (Fed. Cir. 2011)). The Court should dismiss
`9
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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 14 of 16
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`Google’s similarly deficient allegations for the same reasons that the Court dismissed Dialpad’s
`
`inequitable conduct allegations.
`
`Google has failed to allege a specific intent to deceive the USPTO plausibly, the Court
`
`should dismiss Google’s inequitable conduct defense.
`
`V.
`
`CONCLUSION
`
`For all these reasons, Flyp respectfully requests the Court either strike Google’s answer to
`
`the Second Amended Complaint as untimely or dismiss the inequitable conduct defense set forth
`
`therein under Rule 12(b)(6).
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`10
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`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 15 of 16
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`DATED: June 20, 2022
`
`
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`/s/ Michael A. Bittner
`Thomas M. Melsheimer
`Texas Bar No. 13922550
`tmelsheimer@winston.com
`M. Brett Johnson
`Texas Bar No. 00790975
`mbjohnson@winston.com
`Michael A. Bittner
`Texas Bar No. 24064905
`mbittner@winston.com
`Steven R. Laxton
`Texas Bar No. 24120639
`slaxton@winston.com
`WINSTON & STRAWN LLP
`2121 North Pearl Street, Suite 900
`Dallas, TX 75201
`Telephone: (214) 453-6500
`
`Matthew R. McCullough
`California Bar No. 301330
`mrmccullough@winston.com
`WINSTON & STRAWN LLP
`275 Middlefield Road, Suite 205
`Menlo Park, CA 94025
`Telephone: (650) 858-6500
`
`William M. Logan
`Texas Bar No. 24106214
`wlogan@winston.com
`WINSTON & STRAWN LLP
`800 Capitol Street, Suite 2400
`Houston, TX 77002
`Telephone: (713) 651-2766
`
`ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`11
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`

`

`Case 6:22-cv-00031-ADA Document 120 Filed 06/20/23 Page 16 of 16
`
`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`
`I hereby certify that a copy of the foregoing document was filed electronically in
`compliance with Local Rule CV-5. Therefore, this document was served on all counsel who are
`deemed to have consented to electronic service. Administrative Policies and Procedures for
`Electronic Filing in Civil and Criminal Cases, Western District of Texas, Section 14.
`
`
`/s/ Michael A. Bittner
`Michael A. Bittner
`
`
`
`CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE
`
`Pursuant to Local Rule CV-7(g), counsel for the parties conferred in a good-faith effort on
`June 14 and 20, 2023 to resolve the matter presented herein. No agreement could be reach and
`Google opposes this Motion.
`
`
`/s/ Michael A. Bittner
`Michael A. Bittner
`
`12
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`
`

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