DCT
7:25-cv-00188
Adaptive Avenue Associates Inc v. Home Depot USA Inc
I. Executive Summary and Procedural Information
- Parties & Counsel:
- Plaintiff: Adaptive Avenue Associates, Inc. (Minnesota)
- Defendant: Home Depot USA, Inc. (Delaware)
- Plaintiff’s Counsel: Direction IP Law; Padmanabhan & Dawson, P.L.L.C.
- Case Identification: 7:25-cv-00188, W.D. Tex., 04/21/2025
- Venue Allegations: Plaintiff alleges venue is proper in the Western District of Texas because Defendant maintains a "regular and established place of business" in the district and has committed infringing acts there, including through the operation of its website.
- Core Dispute: Plaintiff alleges that Defendant’s website, specifically its use of "carousel ads" that automatically rotate through content, infringes two patents related to creating and displaying automated sequences of web pages.
- Technical Context: The technology addresses methods for creating server-side, automated "slide show" presentations of web pages to enhance user navigation and engagement, a concept developed to overcome the limitations of static Web 1.0 architecture.
- Key Procedural History: The complaint notes that U.S. Patent No. 7,428,707 is a continuation-in-part of the application that issued as U.S. Patent No. 7,171,629. It also references the prosecution history of the '707 Patent, stating that the Patent Examiner found the claimed method of automatically composing a slideshow from extracted web page details to be unconventional over the prior art.
Case Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2000-10-20 | Earliest Priority Date ('629 & '707 Patents) |
| 2007-01-30 | '629 Patent Issued |
| 2008-09-23 | '707 Patent Issued |
| 2020-07-01 | Date of Accused Instrumentality Screenshots |
| 2025-04-21 | Complaint Filing Date |
II. Technology and Patent(s)-in-Suit Analysis
U.S. Patent No. 7,171,629 - Customizable Web Site Access System And Method Therefore
- Patent Identification: U.S. Patent No. 7,171,629, "Customizable Web Site Access System And Method Therefore," issued January 30, 2007.
The Invention Explained
- Problem Addressed: The patent addresses the inefficiencies of early web navigation, where users had to manually click through sequences of static web pages. It identifies a need for a system that can provide an "automated presentation of desired web page sequences without the costs of reprogramming site content or installing development tools" (Compl. ¶12; ’629 Patent, col. 7:60-65).
- The Patented Solution: The invention proposes a server-based system comprising a "composer" and a "performer" operating on a host server (’629 Patent, FIG. 1). The composer is used to create a "presentation" which includes a list of URLs, a display sequence, and a display duration for each URL (Compl. ¶11; ’629 Patent, col. 8:7-10). The performer then automatically loads and displays this presentation to a user in a "slide show" format, eliminating the need for constant manual clicking.
- Technical Importance: This system was designed to increase visitor engagement and information absorption by replacing the "model of a passive site and active visitor clicking through pages" with an automated, guided "tour" through web content (Compl. ¶34; ’629 Patent, col. 13:30-50).
Key Claims at a Glance
- The complaint asserts independent claim 11 (Compl. ¶46).
- The essential elements of claim 11 are:
- Remotely invoking a composer operating on a host server.
- Creating a presentation in the composer by: establishing a list of URLs (via manual or query-based methods), determining a display sequence for the list, and determining a duration of display for the list.
- Remotely invoking a performer operating on a host server to present the created presentation.
- Automatically and locally displaying the presentation in a slide show format, where each URL is a slide that is displayed for a pre-determined duration without human intervention.
- The complaint does not explicitly reserve the right to assert dependent claims.
U.S. Patent No. 7,428,707 - Customizable Web Site Access System And Method Therefore
- Patent Identification: U.S. Patent No. 7,428,707, "Customizable Web Site Access System And Method Therefore," issued September 23, 2008.
The Invention Explained
- Problem Addressed: As a continuation-in-part of the '629 Patent, this patent addresses the same general domain of automated web navigation. It specifically targets the manual labor involved in creating slideshows, where prior art methods required manually composing a list of URLs and storing it in a static file (Compl. ¶42-43).
- The Patented Solution: The invention introduces a method for "auto-composing" a web slide show. The key step is "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks found within the desired web page" to create the list of URLs for the presentation, which is then automatically displayed ('707 Patent, Abstract, Claim 7; Compl. ¶42). This automates the content-gathering step of the process described in the parent patent.
- Technical Importance: The claimed technological improvement is the automation of the slideshow creation process itself, which the complaint alleges the Patent Examiner found to be an "unconventional feature" during prosecution (Compl. ¶43).
Key Claims at a Glance
- The complaint asserts independent claims 1 and 7 (Compl. ¶64). The analysis focuses on method claim 7.
- The essential elements of claim 7 are:
- Composing a presentation for a desired web page by creating a list of URLs.
- This creation step comprises "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page, wherein the plurality of hyperlinks provides the URLs."
- Automatically displaying the presentation in the order of the created list of URLs.
- The complaint does not explicitly reserve the right to assert dependent claims.
III. The Accused Instrumentality
Product Identification
- The accused instrumentalities are the systems and methods used on the "www.homedepot.com" website, specifically the feature referred to as "carousel ads" (Compl. ¶46, ¶49, ¶67).
Functionality and Market Context
- The complaint alleges that the accused carousels are rotating promotional banners on the Home Depot homepage that "automatically rotate through a series of Web pages" (Compl. ¶44). A screenshot of the website's source code is provided to show a list of URLs corresponding to the different panels in the carousel. This functionality is described as a "Web slide show presentation" (Compl. ¶51). A series of images illustrates the visual sequence of the rotating panels (Compl. ¶54). The complaint alleges these carousel ads provide a significant market benefit, driving higher click-through rates and lower costs-per-conversion compared to static ads (Compl. ¶44-45).
IV. Analysis of Infringement Allegations
'629 Patent Infringement Allegations
| Claim Element (from Independent Claim 11) | Alleged Infringing Functionality | Complaint Citation | Patent Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| remotely invoking a composer operating on a host server; | A web browser or associated code component detects a user's entry to www.homedepot.com and subsequently invokes a composer. | ¶50 | col. 14:16-21 |
| creating a presentation in said composer... establishing a list of URLs in said composer by one of a plurality of list establishment methodologies... | The composer creates a list of URLs for the carousel panels, as evidenced by source code on the website. | ¶51, ¶53 | col. 14:38-44 |
| determining a display sequence of said list of URLs in said composer; | The display sequence is determined by the order of the panels and the corresponding source code. | ¶54 | col. 14:45-47 |
| determining a duration of display for said list of URLs in said composer; | Each slide is displayed for a predetermined duration before the next is displayed, as allegedly shown in a video (Exhibit A). | ¶55 | col. 14:48-50 |
| remotely invoking a performer operating on said host server to present said created presentation; | The performer is invoked when a web user navigates to www.homedepot.com, which is owned and controlled by Defendant. | ¶56, ¶57 | col. 14:51-53 |
| automatically locally displaying the created presentation presented by said performer in a slide show format according to said list and said display sequence... | The carousel presentation is automatically displayed to a user in a slide show format according to the list and sequence. | ¶58 | col. 14:54-58 |
'707 Patent Infringement Allegations
| Claim Element (from Independent Claim 7) | Alleged Infringing Functionality | Complaint Citation | Patent Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| composing a presentation for a desired web page by creating a list of URLs, wherein said step of composing comprises automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page, wherein the plurality of hyperlinks provides the URLs; | The system composes a presentation for www.homedepot.com by creating a list of URLs. This is accomplished by automatically extracting the image URLs for the carousel panels from the webpage's own code. | ¶71, ¶72, ¶73 | col. 8:1-8 |
| and automatically displaying the presentation, wherein the presentation is presented in order of the created list of URLs. | The presentation is automatically displayed in the order of the created list of URLs, as shown by the sequence of panels and allegedly confirmed by a video (Exhibit A). | ¶74 | col. 8:8-10 |
Identified Points of Contention
- Architectural Scope ('629 Patent): A central question may be whether the accused carousel, likely implemented using modern client-side technologies like JavaScript, meets the patent's "host server" architecture for the "composer" and "performer." The defense could argue that the patent's emphasis on a server-side solution to avoid client-side installations creates a distinction from the accused system, where the browser itself may perform many of the claimed functions.
- Functional Scope ('707 Patent): The infringement analysis for the '707 Patent may turn on the meaning of "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page." A question for the court will be whether reading a pre-defined list of URLs from a website's own source code to render the carousel constitutes "extracting" links, or if the term requires a more dynamic discovery of links within the page's user-facing content (e.g., as a search engine does).
V. Key Claim Terms for Construction
The Term: "remotely invoking a composer operating on a host server" ('629 Patent, cl. 11)
Context and Importance: This term is foundational to the infringement theory for the '629 Patent. Its construction will determine whether the accused system's architecture, which likely relies on client-side scripting, falls within the scope of the claims. Practitioners may focus on this term because the patent was written to solve problems of a Web 1.0 environment, and its "host server" language may not map directly onto modern, distributed web application architectures.
Intrinsic Evidence for Interpretation:
- Evidence for a Broader Interpretation: The specification describes the composer as being invoked by a "site owner/developer 18" or a "query-based system 22," which are remote from the end-user, potentially supporting a broad reading where any server-side action to assemble the carousel code before sending it to the client is sufficient (’629 Patent, FIG. 1).
- Evidence for a Narrower Interpretation: The patent repeatedly emphasizes providing an automated presentation "without the costs of... installing development tools" on the client side, and the complaint itself notes the invention uses a "Web-service architecture to deliver this experience seamlessly without client-side implementation" (Compl. ¶12, ¶36). This could support a narrower construction that requires the core composing and performing logic to reside and execute entirely on the server, distinct from code executed by the user's browser.
The Term: "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page" ('707 Patent, cl. 7)
Context and Importance: This phrase captures the asserted point of novelty for the '707 Patent. The dispute will likely focus on whether the accused system's operation constitutes "extracting."
Intrinsic Evidence for Interpretation:
- Evidence for a Broader Interpretation: The claim language itself is general. A plaintiff could argue that any automated process by which the system identifies and uses hyperlinks on a page to create a list falls within this language, including reading them from the page's source code.
- Evidence for a Narrower Interpretation: The patent's abstract describes "automatic extraction of web page details from a desired web page." The specification, incorporated by reference from the '629 Patent, gives examples like creating a slideshow from a list of search results, which suggests a process of discovering links within one set of content to create a presentation of other, separate content (’629 Patent, col. 13:5-15). This could support a narrower view that "extracting" requires finding links within content, not merely reading a pre-coded list that defines the component itself.
VI. Other Allegations
Indirect Infringement
- The complaint does not plead separate counts for induced or contributory infringement. It alleges that "Defendant and/or other actors under the Defendant's direction or control" perform the infringing steps, which is language consistent with a direct infringement theory (Compl. ¶49). The complaint does not provide sufficient detail for analysis of indirect infringement.
Willful Infringement
- The complaint does not contain an allegation of willful infringement or a prayer for enhanced damages.
VII. Analyst’s Conclusion: Key Questions for the Case
- A core issue will be one of architectural scope: Does the accused website's carousel, which likely operates using modern client-side scripting, embody the specific "composer/performer operating on a host server" architecture claimed in the '629 Patent, an invention conceived to solve problems in a different technological era?
- A key evidentiary question will be one of functional definition: Does the accused system's process of reading a pre-defined list of URLs from its own source code to render the carousel meet the '707 Patent's requirement of "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page," or is there a fundamental mismatch between rendering a component and extracting external content?