Articles Posted in District Courts

Canvs filed a patent infringement action in 2014 asserting that Nivisys induced and contributed to the infringement of its patent through the sale of TACS and TACS-M products. After a lengthy stay, the district court held a Markman hearing and before the district court took any action related to the Markman hearing, Nivisys filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. After that, the district court entered its Claim Construction Order.

After the claim construction order, the partied asked the district court to enter judgment in favor of Nivisys on all claims asserted in the action and to vacate its Claim Construction Order “[t]o avoid collateral estoppel against Canvs.”
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Cobra International, Inc. (“Cobra”) filed a patent infringement action against Defendants for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,821,858 (“the ‘858 patent”). Cobra alleged that the ‘858 patent was issued to Allan J. Stone, who became “the owner” of the patent, and that Stone assigned the patent to Cobra.

The district court had previously granted Defendants’ Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment of Patent Invalidity for Lack of Inventorship on the ground that Stone was not the sole inventor of the ‘858 patent, but the district court also held that Cobra “must be allowed to correct inventorship pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 256 in order to avoid a finding of patent invalidity.” Defendants subsequently moved to dismiss the on the ground that Cobra does not have complete ownership of the ‘858 patent and failed to join its co-owners as plaintiffs.
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Plaintiff SATA GmbH & Co. KG (“Plaintiff”) sought an ex parte Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and a Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Plaintiff alleged that Defendants Zhejiang Refine Wufu Air Tools Co., Ltd. (“Wufu”) and Prona Tools, Inc. (“Prona”) (collectively, “Defendants”) committed trademark counterfeiting, trademark infringement, and design patent infringement through Defendants’ use of Plaintiff’s trademarks and design patents on Defendants’ products.

The district court explained that “[i]n order to succeed on its motion, ‘[a] plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction must establish that he is likely to succeed on the merits, that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips in his favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest.’ Winter v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008). Injunctive relief is ‘an extraordinary remedy that may only be awarded upon a clear showing that the plaintiff is entitled to such relief.’ Id. at 22.”
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As the case between Milo & Gabby, LLC and Amazon moved closer to trial, Amazon filed several motions in limine, including a motion to force the plaintiffs to remove statements from its websites, which Amazon contended were inaccurate and prejudicial. Amazon also contended that the statements on the website could taint potential jurors and contained impermissible argument regarding remedial measures.
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As the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (“WARF”) patent infringement case against Apple approached trial, Apple attempted to call a witness live that it had previously informed WARF’s counsel would be called by deposition.

Apple’s counsel had previously asked that Patrick McNamara be allowed to appear by deposition in order to accommodate his schedule and not cut into his vacation in order to be called adversely in WARF’s case.
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In this patent infringement action, Defendant R/X Automation Solutions filed a motion in limine to exclude one of plaintiff’s experts. The district court concluded that the motion was an untimely Daubert motion because the district court had set a deadline for dispositive motions and Daubert motions.

The district court was not impressed with the excuse for the late filing. “Defendant’s excuse that it could not have known of the bases for the motion until after it took depositions of the experts is lame. Defendant had Dr. Derby’s report, for example, before the due date for Daubert motions. Everything that the ‘motion in limine’ complains of with respect to Dr. Derby is plain to see on the face of his report.”
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In this patent infringement action, Plaintiffs filed motions in limine to exclude 15 prior art references that defendants intend to use to show the state of the art pertinent to the patents-in-suit. Defendants included the 15 references on a recent notice, but the references were not included on defendants’ third (and final) amended invalidity contentions.

As explained by the district court, “Defendants intone the wearying refrain that granting the motion would constitute ‘reversible error,’ because they are absolutely entitled to show the state of the art. Defendants are correct that the obviousness analysis is expansive and flexible, and that references like the ones at issue now might be relevant to show what was generally known in the art at the time of the invention. But defendants miss the point, which is not whether the 15 references are relevant. The issue is whether the 15 references were properly disclosed in this case.”
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The plaintiffs, Fieldturf USA and Tarkett Inc. (collectively, “Fieldturf”) filed a patent infringement action against Astroturf LLC (“Astroturf”). In defense, Astroturf intended to present expert testimony on anticipation showing that certain Fieldturf technical information predated the patent-in-suit.

Based on the technical information, Astroturf’s expert created replicas of the fields and he then used multiple techniques to measure the infill depth. Before trial, Fieldturf filed a motion in limine that sought to exclude the replicas, contending that Astroturf made most of the decisions regarding the replicas’ size and materials, and directly participated in the replicas’ creation. Fieldturf also argued that the replicas did not control for multiple factors — such as the weight and density of the carpet, whether the sand and rubber was laid in separate layers or as a mixture, the size of rubber particles, and humidity — that impact the infill depth.
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