Singular Computing LLC v. Google LLC (D. Mass. singular19-cv-12551).

Singular sued Google in 2019, accusing Google of infringing patents relating to computers having “massively parallel processing” and of breaching a non-disclosure agreement.  The asserted claims have survived an Alice challenge and an inter partes review.  Recently, two and a half years following the Court’s Markman hearing and only two months before trial, Google sought further claim construction of a particular term, “execution unit,” seeking to have it construed as requiring each unit be physically distinct from other units without sharing any common parts.

Judge Saylor denied Google’s motion and declined to construe the term further.  He noted that the term had been the subject of the parties’ claim construction briefing, and that the Court had adopted Singular’s proposed construction in July 2022.  He noted that Google had not since that time sought reconsideration of the Markman ruling or sought further construction, despite having had ample time to do so, and determined that the failure to do so constituted a waiver of any further construction contentions.

Judge Saylor further noted that Google’s proposed construction would not have been adopted in any event.  The execution unit had already been construed as consisting of an arithmetic circuit and a memory circuit, but nothing in that construction, or in the intrinsic and/or extrinsic record prohibited one of those circuits from also interacting with a circuit from a different unit, so long as it also remained paired with the circuit of its own unit.  Accordingly, he refused to further construe the claim as Google had requested.