United States Seventh Circuit

In a suit alleging breach of patent licensing contracts, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) res judicata did not prevent the suit from going forward since the plaintiff's failure to bring the current allegations as counterclaims in a previous declaratory action by defendant did not bar plaintiff from making the claims in a separate lawsuit; 2) the district court judge mistakenly blocked two of plaintiff's claims for damages after determining that they should have been filed as compulsory counterclaims in the declaratory action; and 3) the terms of the contracts between the parties did not provide for recovery of attorney's fees.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/05/2007
• Decided 01/14/2008
• Published 01/14/2008

Judges

• POSNER, Circuit Judge., Before POSNER, EVANS, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Emily M. Feinstein, Quarles & Brady, Madison, WI, Kurt J. Niederluecke (argued), Fredrikson & Byron, Minneapolis, MN, for Plaintiff-Appellee, Cross-Appellant., John C. Scheller, Michael Best & Friedrich, Madison, WI, Gary A. Ahrens (argued), Michael Best & Friedrich, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.