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On December 6, 2010, the Tokyo district court issued a decision that a navigation system administered by Navitime Japan does not infringe any of two Pioneer’s patents.  The Plaintiff, Pioneer, holds two Japanese patents JP 2891794 B (‘794 patent) and JP 2891795 B (‘795 patent) each directed to a navigation system and the claims of the patents include a language “car-mounted” which appears only in the preamble. 

Navitime Japan administers a navigation service “EZ passenger seat navigation” to users carrying specific mobile computers or terminals.  For this service, Navitime Japan holds a server capable of making a data communication with the mobile terminals.  The mobile terminal is installed with a program.  The program may be downloaded through internet.  In operation, the mobile terminal receives GPS signal indicating a current geographical location of the terminal.  The user inputs a destination through key operation on the terminal.  The current location and the destination are transmitted to the server.  The server generates navigation data using the current location to the destination, which is transmitted to and received by the terminal.  Using the navigation data, the terminal displays a map and route on its screen.

Pioneer argued that the Navitime Japan’s navigation service includes all the limitations in the body of the claims, and also the preamble language “car-mounted navigation system” should be construed to mean “a navigation system for cars with a function providing a routing assistance for cars and, for this purpose, equipped with at least a display, a sensor/device for determining a current location, operation keys, and so forth carried by the car and used in the car”, namely, a part of the claimed elements is required to be mounted on the car but not every element is required to be mounted on the car.

The court rejected Pioneer’s arguments and concluded that Navitime Japan’s navigation system did not infringe any of the patents on the grounds, among others, that (1) it is rational to understand from the general meanings of the languages “car-mounted” and “system/device” that the “navigation system” means an integrated navigation system of which all elements should be mounted together on the car; (2) it is literally natural to understand that “a car-mounted navigation system having means A, B, C and D” should be construed to mean that the navigation system has means A, B, C and D and also the system equipped with those means is required to be mounted on the car; and (3) the navigation system disclosed in the specification is the integrated system and the specification fails to disclose either a combination of component(s) mounted on car and component(s) not mounted on car or to provide such combination with functions of the claimed invention.

http://www.courts.go.jp/hanrei/pdf/20101220120521.pdf
 
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Claim 1 of ‘794 patent reads as follows:
A car-mounted navigation system which displays information for navigation from a current location to a destination, based upon destination coordinate data indicating a set destination and current coordinate date indicating a current location of car, comprising:
a memory having a plurality of memory portions for memorizing the destination coordinate data;
means for writing the destination coordinate data indicating the set destination into one memory position that is different from at least another memory position in which the destination coordinate data was last memorized, the writing being carried out every time the destination is newly set;
means for reading out the destination coordinate data from the memory; and
means for setting one of the destination coordinate data according to an operation by users.(Emphasis added)