Adaptive Avenue Associates Inc v. HP Inc

I. Executive Summary and Procedural Information

• Parties & Counsel:
  • Plaintiff: Adaptive Avenue Associates, Inc. (Minnesota)
  • Defendant: HP Inc. (Delaware)
  • Plaintiff's Counsel: Direction IP Law
• Case Identification: 4:25-cv-01270, E.D. Tex., 03/12/2026
• Venue Allegations: Plaintiff alleges venue is proper in the Eastern District of Texas because Defendant maintains various places of business within the district. The complaint cites Collin County tax records and HP's conduct in prior patent litigation within the district, where it allegedly did not contest or ultimately withdrew challenges to venue.
• Core Dispute: Plaintiff alleges that Defendant's website, www.hp.com, infringes two patents related to server-side systems for creating and automatically displaying sequences of web content, such as the image carousels common on commercial homepages.
• Technical Context: The technology addresses methods for presenting a series of web pages or content snippets in an automated slideshow format, aiming to improve upon earlier, more cumbersome methods that relied on manual user navigation or client-side plugins like Adobe Flash.
• Key Procedural History: The complaint references several prior patent cases in the same district involving HP, focusing on venue disputes to support its own venue contentions. It also notes that during the prosecution of one of the patents-in-suit, the patent examiner determined that its method for automatically composing a slideshow was unconventional.

Case Timeline

II. Technology and Patent(s)-in-Suit Analysis

U.S. Patent No. 7,171,629 - Customizable Web Site Access System And Method Therefore

The Invention Explained

• Problem Addressed: The patent describes a need for a system that can provide an "automated presentation of desired web page sequences" without the high costs of reprogramming a website or forcing users to install client-side development tools like Flash plugins, which were prevalent at the time '629 Patent, col. 7:60-67 The conventional user experience was described as tedious, requiring users to manually click through web pages or search results '629 Patent, col. 7:50-59
• The Patented Solution: The invention proposes a server-based system with two main software components: a "composer" and a "performer," both operating on a host server '629 Patent, col. 9:11-17 '629 Patent, FIG. 1 The composer creates a "presentation" by establishing a list of URLs, their display sequence, and a duration for each '629 Patent, abstract A remote user's browser can then invoke the performer, which automatically loads and displays the sequence of URLs in a slideshow format without requiring a local plugin, thereby improving the user experience '629 Patent, col. 13:30-50
• Technical Importance: This server-side architecture was designed to offer a more flexible and seamless way to deliver sequenced content compared to the dominant client-side plugin model of the era, avoiding plugin installation and compatibility issues Compl. ¶30

Key Claims at a Glance

The complaint asserts independent claim 11 Compl. ¶46 Its essential elements include:

• remotely invoking a composer operating on a host server;
• creating a presentation in the composer by:
  • establishing a list of URLs using manual or query-based methods;
  • determining a display sequence for the list of URLs;
  • determining a display duration for the list of URLs;
• remotely invoking a performer operating on the host server to present the created presentation; and
• automatically locally displaying the presentation in a slide show format, wherein each slide is automatically displayed to a user, absent human intervention, for a pre-determined duration.

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

The Invention Explained

• Problem Addressed: As a continuation-in-part of the application leading to the '629 Patent, the '707 Patent addresses the same general problem space but focuses specifically on the creation of the slideshow presentation Compl. ¶66 The complaint alleges that prior art methods required a slideshow to be composed manually and stored in a standard HTML file Compl. ¶67
• The Patented Solution: The '707 Patent discloses an "auto composer" that automates the creation of the URL list '707 Patent, abstract The system automatically extracts "web page details" from a desired web page-such as hyperlinks, a presentation/rendition text file, or a meta tag-to generate the list of URLs for the slideshow presentation '707 Patent, col. 2:21-30 The performer then displays this automatically generated presentation.
• Technical Importance: This invention sought to reduce the manual effort required to create a slideshow by programmatically generating the content list from an existing webpage, which the complaint alleges was considered an unconventional feature by the patent examiner Compl. ¶68

Key Claims at a Glance

The complaint asserts independent claim 7 Compl. ¶69 Its essential elements include:

• composing a presentation for a desired web page by creating a list of URLs, where the composing step comprises one of the following:
  • automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page;
  • automatically extracting a presentation/rendition text file from the desired web page; or
  • automatically extracting a meta tag from the desired web page;
• 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 instrumentality is the website www.hp.com and the methods it employs for presenting content Compl. ¶46 Compl. ¶69

Functionality and Market Context

• The complaint alleges that the www.hp.com homepage features a "web slide show" in its upper portion, which functions as a "carousel ad" that automatically rotates through a series of images Compl. ¶28 Compl. ¶47 This feature is allegedly implemented using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS Compl. ¶48 A screenshot provided in the complaint shows the homepage of www.hp.com with the accused web slide show visible in the upper portion Compl. ¶47, Ex. E
• The complaint identifies specific technical components, such as a "div class="slick-list draggable"" element, as part of the code that comprises the slideshow Compl. ¶48 It also provides a screenshot of what it asserts are exemplary HTML elements associated with the slideshow Compl. ¶47, Ex. A Plaintiff alleges that such carousel ads have become an industry standard that can generate significantly higher click-through rates and lower costs-per-conversion compared to static ads Compl. ¶28

IV. Analysis of Infringement Allegations

'629 Patent Infringement Allegations

'707 Patent Infringement Allegations

Identified Points of Contention

• Scope Questions: The dispute may turn on whether the terms "composer" and "performer" can be read to cover the functions of an integrated, modern web application. A question for the court may be whether HP's system, allegedly built with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, contains the distinct, server-side "composer" and "performer" components required by the '629 Patent's claims.
• Technical Questions: For the '707 Patent, a central technical question will be what "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page" means in the context of a dynamic website. The analysis may explore whether a server-side process that assembles a list of image URLs for display on a webpage is the same as "extracting" those URLs "from" the webpage as claimed.

V. Key Claim Terms for Construction

The Term: "composer" and "performer" (from '629 Patent, claim 11)

• Context and Importance: These terms define the core two-part architecture of the claimed system. The infringement analysis for the '629 patent depends on whether the functionality of the accused HP.com website can be mapped onto this specific structure. Practitioners may focus on whether these terms require two distinct software modules or can describe logically separate functions within a monolithic application.
• Intrinsic Evidence for Interpretation:
  • Evidence for a Broader Interpretation: The patent's abstract describes the components functionally: "a composing portion... is used to create a presentation" and a "performing portion... operates to load and display the presentation" '629 Patent, abstract This could support a view that any system performing these distinct functions meets the limitation, regardless of its specific software implementation.
  • Evidence for a Narrower Interpretation: The detailed description depicts the "Composer 12" and "Performer 14" as separate blocks operating on the "Host Server 16" '629 Patent, FIG. 1 Further, the specification analogizes their functions to separate, known software concepts: the "bookmark feature" for the composer and the "slide show feature" for the performer '629 Patent, col. 8:67-9:2 This may support an argument that the claims require distinct, modular components.

The Term: "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page" (from '707 Patent, claim 7)

• Context and Importance: This phrase describes the central inventive concept of the '707 Patent. The infringement determination will likely hinge on the construction of "extracting... from."
• Intrinsic Evidence for Interpretation:
  • Evidence for a Broader Interpretation: The term could be interpreted to cover any automated server-side process that gathers a list of URLs (e.g., for images) that are intended for display on a given web page and then uses them to construct a slideshow for that page.
  • Evidence for a Narrower Interpretation: The phrase "extracting... from the desired web page" could be construed more narrowly to require a process that parses the content of a pre-existing, static web page to find and collect the URLs within it. The patent's abstract states the system works through "automatic extraction of web page details from a desired web page," which suggests the page exists as an object from which data is pulled, potentially posing a challenge to an infringement theory based on dynamically generated content Compl. ¶71 '707 Patent, abstract

VI. Other Allegations

Indirect Infringement

The complaint does not plead separate counts for indirect infringement. Instead, it argues that to the extent end-users are involved in performing any claimed steps, their performance is "attributable to Defendant" because HP "directed or controlled" the performance by designing its website to operate automatically upon a user's visit Compl. ¶55 Compl. ¶74 This is a theory of direct infringement under a "direction or control" standard.

VII. Analyst's Conclusion: Key Questions for the Case

• A core issue will be one of architectural mapping: can the integrated server-side code and client-side scripts of a modern JavaScript-driven image carousel be fairly characterized as the distinct server-side "composer" and "performer" architecture claimed in the '629 patent, or does this represent a fundamental mismatch between the claimed invention and the accused technology?
• A key question of claim scope will center on the '707 patent: does the claim limitation "automatically extracting a plurality of hyperlinks from the desired web page" read on a server-side process that dynamically generates or assembles a list of image URLs for a webpage, or does it require a more literal parsing of a pre-composed webpage to find and extract URLs contained within it?