Howlink owns US Pat. No. 7,876,744 ("'744 patent") which relates to a method and system for making collect calls over a Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”). Howlink filed suit against Defendants which provide VoIP-based collect call systems and services to various correctional facilities alleging infringement of the '744 patent. After a magistrate judge construed terms of the '744 patent, the district court adopted the magistrate judge’s findings and conclusions. Based on the claim constructions, the parties stipulated to non-infringement of the '744 patent.

On appeal, Howlink challenges the construction of two terms: (1) “temporarily transmitting voice of a caller to the called terminal to identify the caller,” and (2) “prohibiting voice transmission until a collect call acceptance arrives after the temporary voice transmission,” arguing that the district court incorrectly construed the terms to require the transmission of a “live” voice.

The Federal Circuit agreed with the district court finding that the claim language itself requires “live” voice, the phrase “then prohibiting voice transmission” requires that the temporary voice transmission refers to a “live” voice, the written description supports the terms include a “live” voice, and every independent claim requires “temporarily transmit voice of a caller to the called terminal.

Based on the claim constructions, the Federal Circuit affirm the district court’s judgment of non-infringement of the '744 patent.