United States Federal Circuit

In a state-law fraud suit stemming from alleged acts of malpractice committed by a lawyer and his firm in connection with a patent application: 1) the district court's grant of summary judgment to the defendants is reversed, where a) patent jurisdiction under 28 USC section 1338 was proper because the underlying question was whether the plaintiff would have been able to achieve patent protection for its invention absent the alleged malpractice, and b) the district court erred in not tolling California's three-year statute of limitations for fraud claims during the time the case was pending in the state courts; and 2) the district court's damages order is vacated, where the record did not support the district court's manner of summarily limiting damages.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/23/2012
• Published 04/23/2012

Judges

• Clevenger

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Sanford Jay Rosen, Elliot R. Peters