Requisite Proof Of Inducement To Infringe Step-Based Method Claims

Addressing whether a plaintiff had presented evidence sufficient to overcome defendants’ motion for summary judgment of non-infringement, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit outlined the required elements to support a claim of inducement to infringe under §271(b), where claim language contains steps that refer to the results of the previous step. E-Pass Technologies, Inc. v. 3Com Inc., Case Nos. 2006-1356, -1357, -1358 (Fed. Cir., Jan. 12, 2007) (Linn, J.).

The plaintiff, E-Pass, is the owner of patent that claims "a method and device for substituting a single electronic multifunction card for multiple credit cards." Claim 1, the only independent claim, describes "[a] method for enabling a user of an electronic multi-function card to select data from a plurality of data sources" and recites a number of steps, some of which must be performed by the end-user/consumer.