United States Third Circuit

Judgment for defendant in an action for breach of a patent assignment agreement involving a patent for coronary stent technology, is reversed and remanded, where: 1) the district court erred in dismissing plaintiff's breach of contract claim because defendant's settlement with the third party infringer that included other claims, entitled defendant to damages, and resulted in a monetary gain, through the cash offset of billions of dollars, and it is arguably ambiguous whether this gain qualifies as a "recovery" under the terms of the parties' agreement; 2) plaintiff is not entitled to share in the value of the licenses that defendant recovered in the settlement because the contract simply does not require defendant to share the proceeds of a settlement-in-kind; and 3) there are disputed material facts as to the purpose of the terms of the agreement and the reasonableness of plaintiff's expectations, so his implied-covenant claim is not barred as a matter of law.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/05/2013
• Published 09/05/2013

Judges

• SLOVITER

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel