Fed Circuit cancels Coca-Cola’s patent win over NPE

Coca-Cola must fight off revived claims that its  Freestyle drinks dispenser infringes IP owned by a non-practising entity.

Freestyle is a touch-screen operated machine that allows users to pick from more than 100 varieties of Coca-Cola and other brands like Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Minute Maid, and Fanta.

In 2016, Coca-Cola was hit with a patent infringement lawsuit from Rothschild Connected Devices Innovation (RCDI), one of several patent-holding companies linked to inventor Leigh Rothschild.

According to RCDI’s lawsuit, Freestyle infringes IP for a beverage dispenser invented by Rothschild.

Coca-Cola initially beat the claims at the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, which granted the beverage corporation’s motion for summary judgment.

RCDI appealed against the district court’s ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, arguing that it had “misconstrued” the relevant patent claims, and also “abused its discretion” in granting summary judgment to Coca-Cola.

The Federal Circuit has now cancelled Coca-Cola’s win at the district court, meaning the case must be reheard.

According to the Federal Circuit, the district court’s interpretation of key claims in the RCDI dispenser patent was wrong.

The district court “erroneously concluded” that the user interface described in the patent must be physically part of the dispenser, the Federal Circuit ruled.

It was also wrong in concluding that the system described in the patent had to use specific, short-range wireless communication technologies like WiFi or Bluetooth, the appeals court added.

The Federal Circuit also said the district court was wrong in reading the patent as requiring direct communication of a user’s identity and choice of beverage.

“All the claim requires is that the user interface module be ‘configured to’ receive the user and beverage identifiers,” the Federal Circuit judgment said.

Finally, the appeals court backed RCDI’s claim that the district court had “abused” its discretion in granting summary judgment to Coca-Cola.

That’s because this was based on a “faulty premise” that RCDI had not properly identified certain patent claims as part of its infringement case.

The district court will now rehear the case in line with the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of the patent claims.

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