Lack of Evidence Still Fatal to Infringement Claim

Posted on | April 17, 2008 | No Comments

2008-1299 L&W v. Shertech
ED/MI 01-cv-73892

Patentee/defendant Shertech appeals from a jury verdict and judgment by Judge John O’Meara finding  declaratory judgment plaintiff L&W did not infringe 5,670,264 and awarding $192k to L&W on a fraud claim.  The parties are manufacturers of heat shields for automobiles. 

This is Round II at the CAFC.  Previously, the district court had granted Shertech summary judgment finding that L&W infringed, but a subsequent jury trial found all claims but claim 7 invalid.  The court also found claim 7 not unenforceable due to inequitable conduct.

In 2006-1065, the Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidity and unenforceability judgments, but reversed on infringement.  The essence of the reversal was that there was actually no evidence or admission of infringement.  This earlier appeal was covered by FedCirc.us, The Patent Prospector, and Patently-O.

While the issue of infringement of claim 7 was just tried, the fraud verdict was part of the earlier trial and was apparently not appealed in Round I.

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