Dynapass IP Holdings v. Bank of America
Panel: Moore, Chen, Bissoon
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Eastern District of Texas's dismissal with prejudice of Dynapass IP Holdings LLC's infringement suit against Bank of America concerning U.S. Patent No. 6,993,658, which relates to user authentication systems employing tokens and passcodes delivered through communication devices. Following claim construction, the parties stipulated to non-infringement and jointly moved for entry of final judgment, which the district court treated as a motion for dismissal and granted.
The court's analysis turned on whether the claim language "receiving the password" could encompass separate receipt of the password's constituent components—the passcode and token—or required receipt of a combined password. Applying de novo review to the intrinsic evidence, the court held that the claim's sequential structure—first "generating a new password" from the token and passcode, then "setting a password" to be that new password, and finally "receiving the password"—unambiguously required receipt of the combined password rather than its separate components. The court rejected Dynapass's effort to import an alternative embodiment from the specification, emphasizing that the specification consistently juxtaposed "password" with the separate "passcode and token" throughout and never described separate submission as "receiving the password," thereby reinforcing the claim language's plain meaning over disclosed but unclaimed alternatives.