In August 2011, Google filed a motion to strike portions of the opening and reply expert reports of Oracle’s expert on patent infringement. Google argued that much of the report was not supported by Oracle’s infringement contentions as required by the Northern District of California’s local patent rules. The district…
Articles Posted in District Courts
Failure to Offer Evidence of Acceptable Non-Infringing Alternatives in Summary Judgment Precludes Later Offer at Trial
Plaintiff filed a patent infringement action and subsequently filed a partial motion for summary judgment. In the partial motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff contended that there were no acceptable and available, non-infringing alternatives to the claimed inventions during the relevant damage period. The district court granted the motion. Prior…
Inducing Infringement Claims Dismissed Where Plaintiff Failed to Allege Intentional Inducement
Plaintiff sued defendant for patent infringement for direct and indirect infringement for the commercial sale and/or use of the defendant’s asset tracking solutions product. Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) on the ground that plaintiff failed to identify an infringing instrumentality and also failed to allege…
Apple and Samsung Preliminary Injunction Battle Heats Up As Court Rules on Discovery Dispute
The ongoing patent battles between Apple and Samsung continue to pick up speed and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. During the summer, Apple filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on certain of its patents and the district court ordered limited initial discovery for the topics raised…
Patent Exhaustion Leads to Dismissal of Video Compression Patents Alleged Against Certain DirecTV Products
Multimedia Patent Trust (“MPT”) filed a patent infringement action against several defendants, including DirecTV and Vizio, which alleged infringement of multiple patents related to video compression technology. DirecTV and Vizio answered the complaint an alleged affirmative defenses of patent exhaustion and license. The parties filed cross motions for summary judgment…
Despite Therasense’s Heightened Standard, Another Inequitable Conduct Claim Survives Summary Judgment
It appears that the announced death of inequitable conduct claims may have been premature. As described below, yet another court allowed such claims to survive summary judgment. A court in the Northern District of Illinois denied summary judgment on the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment of no unenforceability. Citing the…
Multiple Defendants Dismissed Based on Improper Joinder
In a ruling that is likely to become more and more common after the passage of the America Invents Act, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed all but one of the defendants in a patent infringement action for improper joinder. In February 2010, the…
Inequitable Conduct Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss Because Allegations Permitted a Plausible Inference of Intent to Deceive
Plaintiff AlmondNet, Inc. filed a patent infringement action against Microsoft Corporation based on four patents pertaining to Internet advertising. Microsoft filed several affirmative defenses and counterclaims against AlmondNet, including a defense and counterclaim that AlmondNet engaged in inequitable conduct before the PTO by failing to disclose three articles related to…
Another Inequitable Counterclaim Dismissed after Therasense
Plaintiff filed a patent infringement action against the defendant alleging that certain of defendant’s T-shirt transfer products infringed plaintiff’s patent. Defendant filed an answer and counterclaim which accused the plaintiff of inequitable conduct in amending its patent during a reissuance of the patent. Defendant claimed that plaintiff deliberately pursued a…
Hurricane Shooters Defendant Toasts Court’s Ruling That Its Section 102(g) Prior Invention Defense Survives Summary Judgment
Plaintiff Hurricane Shooters, LLC sought summary judgment of no invalidity on Defendant’s defenses of prior inventorship under Section 102(g) and lack of utility under Section 101. The patents-in-suit involve drinking cups for serving mixed drinks in bars and restaurants having a plural chamber that optimizes the mixing of fluids as…