PTAB

IPR2020-00968

Google LLC v. EcoFactor Inc

Log In
Key Events
Petition
petition

1. Case Identification

2. Patent Overview

  • Title: System for Evaluating Changes in HVAC Operational Efficiency
  • Brief Description: The ’322 patent discloses a system for evaluating changes in the operational efficiency of an HVAC system over time. The system utilizes one or more processors that receive inside and outside temperature measurements to model a structure’s thermal characteristics and determine if the HVAC system’s performance has degraded.

3. Grounds for Unpatentability

Ground 1: Claims 1, 4, and 7 are anticipated by Oswald

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Oswald (Application # 2005/0171645).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that Oswald discloses every limitation of independent claim 1. Oswald teaches a household energy management system that evaluates changes in the operational efficiency of an HVAC system over time. It does this by using inside and outside temperature measurements to create a "transient thermal model" of a house. The system periodically updates this model and compares it to a "reference transient thermal model" from an earlier period to detect "deteriorating efficiency of the connected heating and/or cooling electrical appliances," thus meeting the claim’s core requirement of comparing temperatures over time to determine a decrease in operational efficiency.
    • Key Aspects: Petitioner contended that Oswald’s method of comparing a current thermal model to a past version is conceptually identical to the ’322 patent's method of evaluating efficiency changes.

Ground 2: Claims 1, 3-8, and 10-14 are obvious over Oswald in view of Ehlers

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Oswald (Application # 2005/0171645) and Ehlers (Patent 6,216,956).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner asserted that Oswald’s energy management system provides the foundational teachings for the challenged claims. Ehlers was cited to supply certain well-known features, demonstrating their commonality in the art. For independent claim 8, which requires a second HVAC control system at a second structure, Petitioner argued that Oswald’s system, which compares a derived thermal model to a "reference transient thermal model," would be obviously improved by incorporating Ehlers’s teaching of using multiple, networked HVAC systems at different premises. The thermal model from the second system in Ehlers would serve as an ideal "reference model" for the first system in Oswald. Dependent claims related to programmable thermostats (claims 3, 5) and sole temperature sources (claim 6) were argued to be obvious modifications based on Ehlers and general knowledge.
    • Motivation to Combine: A POSITA would combine the analogous teachings of Oswald and Ehlers, both of which relate to HVAC energy management systems that use inside and outside temperatures to optimize efficiency. Ehlers’s disclosure of multi-premise systems provided a clear path to implement Oswald’s "reference model" concept in a robust manner, particularly for comparing similar structures. This combination represented the application of a known technique (using a baseline from a similar system) to a known system (Oswald) to yield predictable results.
    • Expectation of Success: The art was predictable, involving software-based systems with well-known components. A POSITA would have had a reasonable expectation of success in integrating the multi-site control architecture of Ehlers with the thermal modeling and efficiency comparison methods of Oswald.

Ground 3: Claims 2 and 9 are obvious over Oswald and Ehlers in further view of Rosen

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Oswald (Application # 2005/0171645), Ehlers (Patent 6,216,956), and Rosen (Patent 6,789,739).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: This ground built upon the combination of Oswald and Ehlers to address claims 2 and 9, which require receiving outside temperature measurements for specific "geographic regions such as ZIP codes." While Oswald and Ehlers teach using "local weather" from internet sources, they do not explicitly mention localizing this data via ZIP codes. Petitioner argued that Rosen remedies this by teaching a thermostat that receives location-specific weather data (including temperature) from an internet weather service by providing a ZIP code.
    • Motivation to Combine: A POSITA, seeking to implement the "local weather" functionality described in Oswald, would have been motivated to use a known, simple, and effective method for localizing that data. Rosen provided a straightforward solution by using ZIP codes, a common method for obtaining location-specific data. This would have been an obvious design choice to improve the accuracy and relevance of the weather data used in Oswald’s thermal model.
    • Expectation of Success: Integrating a ZIP code-based lookup to retrieve weather data was a routine programming task with no technical uncertainty, ensuring a high expectation of success.

4. Key Claim Construction Positions

  • Petitioner argued that the term "HVAC system" (recited in claims 1-2, 4-5, 7-9, and 11) should be construed to mean "devices for transferring heat into or out of a building." This construction was based on explicit definitions within the ’322 patent’s specification and was presented as central to understanding the scope of the claims in relation to the prior art.

5. Relief Requested

  • Petitioner requests institution of an inter partes review and cancellation of claims 1-14 of the ’322 patent as unpatentable.