{"id":1753,"date":"2017-09-07T23:04:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T03:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2017-09-09T09:56:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T13:56:16","slug":"knowledge-of-ex-employees-working-for-accused-infringer-makes-inducement-claim-plausible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=1753","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge of Ex-Employees Working for Accused Infringer Makes Inducement Claim Plausible"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Lifetime Industries, Inc., v. Trim-Lok, Inc.<\/a>, [2017-1096] (September 7, 2017), the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of Lifetime\u2019s complaint for infringement of U.S. Patent 6,966,590 failing to adequately allege that\u00a0Trim-Lok either directly or indirectly infringed the patent. \u00a0Lifetime filed two amended complaints after Trim-Lok twice moved for dismissal for failure to identify the accused product. A\u00a0Lifetime representative \u00a0discovered a\u00a0two-part Trim-Lok seal installed on an RV with a slideout\u00a0room at a plant run by a third party. \u00a0On Trim-Lok’s third motion,\u00a0the\u00a0district court determined that Lifetime had adequately
\nidentified the accused product, but that Lifetime\u00a0had not adequately pleaded its case.<\/p>\n

The district court concluded that Lifetime\u00a0had not adequately pleaded direct infringement because\u00a0the claims require both a two-part seal and an RV, and\u00a0Trim-Lok only manufactures seals. \u00a0The district court\u00a0rejected Lifetime\u2019s argument that Trim-Lok had \u201cassisted\u00a0with the installation, directed the installation, or directly\u00a0installed\u201d the Trim-Lok seal as confusing liability for\u00a0direct infringement with liability for contributory infringement,\u00a0which the court characterized as imposing\u00a0liability \u201cbased on an offer to sell a component, material,\u00a0or apparatus,\u201d and dismissed the complaint for direct infringement.<\/p>\n

As to indirect\u00a0infringement, the district court\u00a0concluded that Lifetime had not alleged any facts from\u00a0which intent to infringe could be inferred in this case, and dismissed the complaint for indirect infringement as well.<\/p>\n

The Federal Circuit found that\u00a0Lifetime adequately\u00a0alleged that Trim-Lok directly infringed, observing that one who “makes” a patented invention without authorization infringes\u00a0the patent. \u00a0The Federal Circuit said that commercial manufacture is not\u00a0the only way that a combination can infringe; limited\u00a0internal manufacture and use can also infringe. \u00a0The Federal Circuit said that although\u00a0Lifetime did not allege that Trim-Lok made the RV onto\u00a0which it installed the seal, Lifetime did allege that Trim-Lok installed the seal onto the RV; that is, Lifetime\u00a0alleged that Trim-Lok made an infringing seal-RV combination. \u00a0The Federal Circuit found that Trim-Lok’s demand for more detail “asks for too much,” noting that there is no requirement for Lifetime to prove its case at the pleading stage.<\/p>\n

The Federal Circuit also found that\u00a0Lifetime has plausibly alleged
\nthat Trim-Lok induced infringement. \u00a0The Federal Circuit noted that the plausibility requirement is not akin to a probability\u00a0requirement at the pleading stage; it simply calls for\u00a0enough facts to raise a reasonable expectation that\u00a0discovery will reveal that the defendant is liable for the
\nmisconduct alleged. \u00a0The Federal Circuit found that specific allegations\u00a0that former employees Busch and Torrey had knowledge of the\u00a0patent and its scope when they joined Trim-Lok, making it plausable that Trim-Lok had knowledge of the patent. \u00a0The Federal Circuit also found adequate pleading of intent to infringe, noting that Lifetime alleged that after gaining knowledge of the patent and the products covered by the patent Trim-Lok assisted in the installation of the same time of seal on a RV, never having previously made or sold such seals.<\/p>\n

The Federal Circuit also agreed with Lifetime that pleading contributory patent infringement only requires pleading knowledge of the patent, not also an intent to infringe the patent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Lifetime Industries, Inc., v. Trim-Lok, Inc., [2017-1096] (September 7, 2017), the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of Lifetime\u2019s complaint for infringement of U.S. Patent 6,966,590 failing to adequately allege that\u00a0Trim-Lok either directly or indirectly infringed the patent. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,27,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contributory-infringement","category-inducement","category-infringement"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}