Calling All Patentees: Disclose Potential Alternatives For Claimed Steps In A Method Claim

Addressing issues of infringement of a method claim patent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a finding of infringement of a method for routing "1-800" telephone calls to an appropriate service location because the accused infringer did not assign 800 calls to any service location prior to the call. 800 Adept, Inc. v. Murex Securities, Ltd. et al., 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 18521, Case No. 07-1272 -1356 (Fed. Cir., Aug. 29, 2008) (Plager, J.).

Plaintiff 800 Adept (Adept) and defendant Murex Securities, Murex Licensing and Targus Information (Targus) sell competing services that are used to route calls made to 800 numbers. Each company owns patents covering systems and methods for call routing. Some businesses advertise a single 800 number but have multiple service locations. When a caller dials the 800 number of one of these businesses, the system determines which location is called. Customers include owners of 800 numbers, as well as providers