United States Federal Circuit

Dismissal of plaintiff's suit against defendant for infringement of the '998 patent for lack of standing is affirmed, where: 1) the district court correctly concluded that plaintiff could not maintain its suit because non-party Sandia Corp. is a co-owner of the patent, had not voluntarily joined as a co-plaintiff, and could not be involuntarily joined; and 2) as a matter of substantive patent law, all co-owners must ordinarily consent to join as plaintiffs in an infringement suit, and Sandia cannot be involuntarily joined under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/06/2014
• Published 06/06/2014

Judges

• RADER

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel