Denial of summary judgment on patent eligibility reversed and jury award vacated

Ericsson v TCL Communication Technology was decided on April 14, 2020, on appeal from the Eastern District of Texas. The district court denied defendant TCL’s motion for summary judgment that the asserted claims of plaintiff Ericsson’s patent were ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. At trial, the jury found the …

Withheld offer for sale renders patents unenforceable for inequitable conduct

GS CleanTech v. Adkins Energy was decided on March 2, 2020 on appeal from the Northern District of Illinois. The Patents-in-Suit are “directed to the recovery of oil from a dry mill ethanol plant’s byproduct, called thin stillage.” The district court determined on summary judgment that defendant Adkins did not …

Marking statute limits damages even after the sale of unmarked product ceases

Artic Cat v. Bombadier Recreational was decided on February 19, 2020 on appeal from the Southern District of Florida. Plaintiff Artic Cat entered into a license agreement with a third party, which “expressly stated that [the third party] had no marking obligations.” Thereafter, the third party began making and selling …

Continuation of a continuation is impliedly licensed under the grandparent patent’s license agreement

Cheetah Omni LLC v. AT&T was decided on February 6, 2020, on appeal from the Northern District of Texas. Plaintiff Cheetah asserted that Defendant AT&T’s fiber equipment and services infringed its ‘836 patent. Ciena moved to intervene in the lawsuit because it manufactures and supplies certain components for AT&T’s fiber …

Balance of the harms disfavors injunction where movant does not show irreparable harm

LEGO v. ZURU is a nonprecedential case decided on January 15, 2020, on appeal from the District of Connecticut. Plaintiff LEGO filed a complaint against defendant ZURU for copyright, trademark, and patent infringement and obtained a temporary restraining order. After a hearing, the court granted LEGO’s motion for a preliminary …

Plaintiff is not entitled to jury award after invalidity at the PTAB

Personal Audio v. CBS was decided on January 10, 2020, on appeal from the Eastern District of Texas. A jury found for plaintiff Personal Audio on infringement and invalidity as to three asserted claims, and awarded $1,300,000 as damages against defendant CBS. When the PTAB issued a final written decision …

Fees warranted because of NPE plaintiff’s unreasonable conduct and to deter future abusive litigation

Blackbird v. Health In Motion was decided on December 16, 2019 on appeal from the Central District of California. “[S]hortly before discovery was scheduled to end,” defendant Health In Motion filed a motion for summary judgment. After the motion was fully briefed, without notice to Health, plaintiff Blackbird filed a …

Damages remanded for potential new trial based on appellate finding of reduced liability

VirnetX v. Apple is a nonprecendential case decided on November 22, 2019 on appeal from the Eastern District of Texas. The district court entered summary judgment for plaintiff VirnetX on invalidity, determining that defendant Apple was precluded from pressing its proposed invalidity challenges because of previous litigation between the parties. The …

Preliminary injunction inappropriate where defendant raised a substantial question of validity under anticipation

OrthoAccel Technologies v. Propel Orthodontics is a nonprecedential case decided on September 23, 2019 on appeal from the Northern District of California. The district court denied plaintiff OrthoAccel’s motion for a preliminary injunction because defendant Propel raised a substantial question of validity for the patent under anticipation. OrthoAccel appealed. The Federal …

Declaratory jurisdiction existed where patentee sued the declaratory plaintiff’s customer

UCP v. Balsam is a nonprecedential case decided on September 19, 2019 and unsealed on October 7, 2019 on appeal from the Northern District of California. Balsam sued Frontgate (a third party) alleging infringement of certain patents. After the claim construction order, the parties settled, whereby Frontgate agreed to stop purchasing the relevant product …