Cisco moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s patent infringement complaint pre-lawsuit willfulness allegations. As the district court explained, the allegations in the first amended complaint asserted: “(i) that an investor of both the owner of the ‘951 Patent and of OpenDNS informed unspecified employees or agents of OpenDNS that certain OpenDNS…
Patent Lawyer Blog
District Court Grants Supplemental Motion for Award of Attorneys’ Fees after Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal on Appeal
After the district court dismissed plaintiff’s patent infringement claims, finding the patents directed to patent-ineligible subject matter, and awarded attorneys’ fees based on the exceptional case doctrine, the Federal Circuit affirmed both determinations. The defendant filed a supplemental motion for attorneys’ fees seeking to recover attorneys’ fees for the appellate…
Bell Northern Research v. ZTE: Court Grants Protective Order to Prevent Plaintiff from Using a Former Consultant of Defendant as an Expert Witness
In a previous litigation involving ZTE (but not the plaintiff), ZTE entered into a consulting arrangement with Dr. Madisetti. ZTE asserted that ZTE provided Dr. Madisetti with confidential information under the consulting agreement. When the plaintiff in this case, Bell Northern Research (“BNR”) retained Dr. Madisetti as an expert against…
District Court Denied Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Personal Jurisdiction Where Defendant Failed to Submit Any Evidence and Merely Relied upon Allegations of Complaint
In this patent infringement action, the defendants, Synergistics, Inc. (“Synergistics”), filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. The plaintiff, Parabit Systems, Inc. (“Parabit”), opposed the motion on the ground that it was not required to establish personal jurisdiction in the complaint and that Synergistics had failed…
Magistrate Judge Recommends Denial of Motion to Amend Final Infringement Contentions Where Plaintiff Should Have Sought Additional Information in Discovery
Plaintiff, Fox Factory, moved to amend its final infringement contentions, asserting that the defendant, SRAM, LLC, had failed to produce relevant information regarding its custom “BRAIN” product that had delayed Fox Factory from learning that the BRAIN product infringed the patent-in-suit. SRAM opposed the motion and contended that Fox Factory…
District Court Dismisses Complaint with Prejudice for Plaintiff’s Failure to Participate in Discovery and for Failure to Comply with Court Orders
In this patent infringement action, the defendant moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint for the plaintiff’s failure to participate in discovery and for ignoring several court orders. The motion explained that dismissal sanctions were appropriate in the light of, among other things, the plaintiff’s failure to comply with court orders,…
Motion to Disqualify Based on Representation of “Sister” Companies Denied Where There Was No Showing of Actual Conflict or Possession of Confidential Information
In this patent infringement action, the plaintiff, International Designs Corporation, LLC (“IDC”), moved to disqualify the counsel for defendant Hair Art Int’l, Inc. (“Hair Art”). IDC moved to disqualify counsel for Hair Art on the grounds that Hair Art’s counsel also represented/represents an entity named Halo Couture, LLC, a California…
District Court Denies Motion to Stay Pending Resolution of Dispositive Motion
In this patent infringement action, the defendant, Playmonster LLC (“Playmonster”), requested that the district court stay discovery during the pendency of its forthcoming dispositive motion. As part of its request, Playmonster contended that a dispositive motion “would be the most efficient resolution of this case,” and that a stay of…
TC Technology v. Sprint: District Court Grants Motion to Amend Complaint to Add Willfulness Claim Finding Good Cause Based on Deposition Testimony
TC Technology filed a patent infringement action against Sprint alleging that Sprint infringed a patent pertaining to wireless services used on an LTE network. The complaint did not allege willful infringement. During discovery, Sprint responded that it had received an email several years before the lawsuit was filed with an…
District Order Issues Sanctions Deeming Defendant’s Summary Of Infringing Sales Established As True Where Defendant Failed to Comply With Multiple Court Orders
In this patent infringement action, the plaintiff, Stuebing Automatic Machine Co. (“Stuebing”) filed a motion for violation of multiple discovery orders against the defendant. As part of the motion, Stuebing sought issue sanctions, including to have certain sales information deemed established. Stuebing had previously served multiple discovery requests, including interrogatories…