Kanneh v. Databox, Inc. (D. Mass. 23-cv-12200).

In September 2023, Francis Kanneh sued Databox, accusing the company of infringing his patent covering systems and methods that utilize machine learning models to provide predictive charts for marketing purposes.  Judge Joun has denied Kanneh’s motion for a preliminary injunction.  Judge Joun, who was seated just under a year ago, noted that to obtain a preliminary injunction in a case where affirmative defenses and counterclaims challenging the validity of the patent were brought, the patentee must show that it is likely to prove both infringement and that the patent claim will withstand validity and enforceability challenges.  He found that Kanneh had failed to demonstrate infringement because he had not identified any specific claim or claims that were alleged to have been infringed.  Kanneh further failed to  compare any particular claim to any Databox accused product or even identify which part of Databox’s product allegedly infringes.  In light of this, Judge Joun found that a likelihood of success had not been demonstrated and denied the injunction.

Judge Joun further denied Kanneh’s motion to dismiss the counterclaims of invalidity and noninfringement.  The invalidity counterclaim asserted that the patent claims non-patentable subject matter pursuant to the Supreme Court’s Alice decision, and specifies that the claimed invention utilizes conventional components in their normal and expected manner to perform abstract concepts, which provides sufficient notice of the claim.  With respect to noninfringement, the counterclaim asserted that Databox did not infringe any valid claim of the patent, which (combined with the invalidity claim) sufficed to provide notice of the claim.