Court Denies Stay of Patent Infringement Damages Trial During Interlocutory Appeal

In a March 21, 2014 ruling, Judge Colleen McMahon declined to stay proceedings during a defendant’s interlocutory appeal of the of the Court’s liability rulings in this patent infringement action. In considering the request, the Court wrote that the “decision whether to stay a damages trial pending an interlocutory appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(c)(2) rests in the sound discretion of the district court,” balancing “‘the harm that a stay might cause to the party who has obtained judgment’” against “‘the harm that denial of a stay would cause the losing party.’” The moving defendant premised its motion “on its assumption that the Federal Circuit is going to reverse this Court’s rulings on claim construction, infringement and/or validity.”

Judge McMahon first found that the moving defendant “has not offered me any reason to doubt the correctness of my previous rulings – at least one of which I described as ‘not even close.’” The Court then considered the remaining factors concerning a stay, i.e., whether: (1) the non-moving party will suffer any prejudice from a stay; (2) the party moving for the stay will be unduly burdened by the denial of a stay; (3) the interests of the Court in an expeditious resolution of the case will be served by a stay; (4) the interests of non-parties will be affected by a stay; and (5) there is any public interest in the grant or denial of a stay. Judge McMahon concluded that as “far as this Court is concerned, [the moving defendant] has failed to identify any basis for concluding that it has a ‘substantial possibility’ of prevailing on its interlocutory appeal, and the other relevant factors either weigh in favor of denying [the] motion or are neutral.”

Court Grants Summary Judgment of Nonobviousness, Orders Trial on Damages

In a January 29, 2014 ruling, Judge Colleen McMahon granted plaintiff Medien Patent Veraltung AG’s motion for summary judgment of nonobviousness of the patent-in-suit, and denied defendant Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc.’s cross motion for summary judgment of invalidity. The Court had previously entered summary judgment of infringement, so the only remaining issue was Deluxe’s invalidity contention. The parties stipulated that obviousness was the only arguable ground for invalidity.

In considering the cross-motions, Judge McMahon first noted that summary judgment may be granted on the issue of nonobviousness, and that such “a motion does not require a court to find that a challenged patent claim is valid, but rather only that the claim in not invalid in view of the particular prior art references cited by the defendant.” The Court further wrote that obviousness “under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is an issue of law based on underlying issues of fact.” A determination of obviousness requires a “‘showing that a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have selected and combined [the] prior art elements in the normal course of research and development to yield the claimed invention.’”