United States Federal Circuit

In this patent infringement action, the district court determined that plaintiffs established standing and that their '135 patent was willfully infringed by defendant. Defendant appeals, alleging that the patent was invalid on inventorship grounds. The judgment is affirmed, where: 1) to have stood a reasonable chance of prevailing on the issue of joint inventorship, defendant needed to have raised new evidence or theories that were not considered in prior proceedings, but defendant's argument remains unchanged and there is still no new evidence relevant to the legal requirements of joint ownership; and 2) within the backdrop of the extensive proceedings prior to this litigation, defendant's position was not susceptible to a reasonable conclusion that the patent was invalid on inventorship grounds.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/13/2015
• Published 01/13/2015

Judges

• Prost

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel