United States Federal Circuit

An appeal from a judgment for defendants finding that plaintiff's state law claims were preempted by federal patent law, and that defendants did not infringe plaintiff's patent related to a method for dipping and wiping a food article in a specially configured condiment package, is transferred to the circuit court with general jurisdiction, where: 1) the Court's subject matter jurisdiction over patent disputes derives solely from the complaint, not from any counterclaim; 2) here, plaintiff alleged only breach of an implied contract and unjust enrichment based on defendants' alleged use of plaintiff's ideas for condiment packaging, and for use in advertising and promoting of its similar product; and therefore, 3) there is no jurisdiction over the merits of this appeal.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/06/2013
• Published 09/06/2013

Judges

• PLAGER

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel