ZoomInfo Technologies LLC v. Zenleads Inc., d/b/a Apollo.IO

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Delaware construes disputed terms in U.S. Patent Nos. 10,380,609 and 11,392,964 in ZoomInfo Technologies LLC’s patent infringement action against Zenleads Inc., doing business as Apollo.io. The court construes “feature matrix” as a tabular data structure with rows corresponding to entities and columns corresponding to features. The court holds that “fitness . . . characteristics” and “the target client” are not indefinite and gives both terms their plain and ordinary meaning.

Holdings

1. “Feature matrix” means “a tabular data structure, where each row corresponds to an entity, and each column corresponds to a feature, with row-column intersections containing the value of the corresponding feature for the respective entity.”
2. “Fitness . . . characteristics” is not indefinite and has its plain and ordinary meaning.
3. “The target client” is not indefinite and has its plain and ordinary meaning; it refers to a target client from the previously recited plurality of target clients.

Questions Presented

1. What is the proper construction of the claim term “feature matrix”?
2. Whether “fitness . . . characteristics” is indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b).
3. Whether “the target client” is indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because it follows the claim's reference to a plurality of target clients.

Disposition

other