A blog about patent, copyright and trademark law in the U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York

Court Denies Comity to Conflicting Foreign Decisions

In a March 20, 2015 ruling, Judge Kimba M. Wood, in dismissing the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction motion, declined to grant comity to a decision of a French court about the ownership of the copyright at issue in light of another conflicting French decision. Judge Wood ruled that “[b]ecause the copyright analyses in [the two French cases] are irreconcilable on this potentially critical point, and both foreign litigations remain active and apparently independent, the Court concludes, in its discretion, that it would be premature to afford comity to either holding.” The Court thus dismissed the motion with leave for the plaintiff to refile it at any time.

Court Declines to Dismiss Unclean Hands Defense

In a March 19, 2015 ruling, Judge Thomas P. Griesa declined to strike the defendant’s defense of unclean hands. Although the plaintiff is asserting a patent infringement claim, the unclean hands defense relates to the plaintiff’s alleged inequitable interference with the defendant’s supply agreement with a third party. The Court held that by “seeking an injunction against defendant [on the patent infringement claim], plaintiff comes to the court in equity” so the “defense of unclean hands deserves to be tried on the merits.”
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