Beatbot Technology (USA) Co., Ltd.; Deepwater Innovation Technology (Hong Kong) Limited; Xingmai Innovation Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. v. Zodiac Pool Systems LLC

District Court, S.D. California·Decided March 30, 2026·No. 3:25-cv-01946·Unknown

Opinion

BEATBOT TECHNOLOGY (USA) Case No. 3:25-cv-01946-GPC-JLB CO., LTD.; DEEPWATER INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY ORDER: (HONG KONG) LIMITED; • GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ TECHNOLOGY (SUZHOU) CO., • DENYING PLAINTIFFS’

Plaintiffs, [ECF No. 27, 32]

v.

Defendant.

Before the Court is Plaintiffs Beatbot Technology (USA) Co. Ltd, Deepwater Innovation Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, and Xingmai Innovation Technology

(Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (collectively, “Plaintiffs”)’s motion to stay pending the resolution of inter partes review proceedings. ECF No. 27-1 (“Mot.”). Defendant has filed an opposition. ECF No. 30-1 (“Opp.”). Plaintiffs have filed a reply. ECF No. 34 (“Rep.”). Also before the court is Plaintiff’s motion to dismiss. ECF No. 32. The Court finds the matters suitable for decision on the papers. Having reviewed the moving papers and the applicable law, and for the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion to stay and DENIES

without prejudice Plaintiffs’ motion to dis miss. I. Inter Partes Review The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“the AIA”) “replaced the former inter partes reexamination proceeding with an inter partes review process.” Personal

Web Techs., LLC v. Apple Inc., 69 F. Supp. 3d 1022, 1024 (N.D. Cal. 2014). Inter

parties review (“IPR”) allows any person other than the patent owner to file a petition to institute IPR in order to establish that the identified claims are invalid under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 or 103. 35 U.S.C. §§ 311(a)-(b). A petitioner may request to cancel as unpatentable one or more claims of a patent and must rely “only on ... prior art consisting of patents or printed publications.” Id. The PTO must decide whether to institute IPR within three months of the patent owner's preliminary response, or in the event no response is filed, by the last

date on which the response could have been filed. 35 U.S.C. § 314(b). The Director may institute IPR only when the Director determines that “there is a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner would prevail with respect to at least 1 of the claims challenged in the petition.” 35 U.S.C. § 314(a). “[I]f an IPR is instituted, the PTAB ‘must address every claim the petitioner has challenged.’” Wi-LAN Inc. v. LG Elecs., Inc., 421 F. Supp. 3d 911, 923 (S.D. Cal. 2019) (citing SAS Inst., Inc. v. Iancu, 584 U.S. 357, 357 (2018)). If the PTO grants a request for IPR, the PTAB must issue a

final determination “not later than 1 year” after the petition is granted, but the one- year period may be extended by 6 months based on a showing of good cause. 35 U.S.C. § 316(a)(11). II. Instant Motions On July 17, 2025, Defendant sent a letter to Plaintiffs, accusing Plaintiffs of infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 11,888,207 (“the ‘207 Patent”), 11,262,766 (“the ‘766 Patent”), and 11,003,191 (“the ‘191 Patent”) with their products. ECF No. 1

(“Compl.”) ¶ 5, Ex. 4; Mot. at 6. This inc luded Plaintiffs’ Beatbot Aquasense 2 Ultra Robotic Pool Cleaner. Id. The letter demanded that Plaintiffs immediately cease all infringing conduct. Id. On July 31, 2025, Plaintiffs filed their complaint, seeking a declaratory judgment that their products do not infringe upon the three identified patents.

Compl. at 9. On September 22, 2025, Defendant filed an answer and counterclaims.

ECF No. 10. Plaintiffs provided an answer to the counterclaims on October 14, 2025. ECF No. 15. On November 19, 2025, a Case Management Order was issued. ECF No. 18. Pursuant to the schedule, the parties have exchanged infringement and invalidity contentions and have begun exchanging construction materials. Id.; Opp. at 6; Rep. at 7. No depositions have been taken, and both fact discovery and expert discovery remain open until October 5, 2026 and December 28, 2026 respectively. Mot. at 7.

On January 26, 2026, Plaintiffs filed three petitions for inter partes review (“IPR”) with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”). Id. The petitions challenge all Defendant’s asserted claims of the ‘207, ’776, and ‘191 patents Id. Defendant’s briefing on whether the PTAB should decline the petitions on discretionary grounds is due March 30, 2026, and its Preliminary Patent Owner Response is due April 28, 2026. Opp. at 6. The PTAB will then decide the discretionary denial issue by May 28, 2026, and if the decision does not result in a

denial, the PTAB will issue an institution decision by July 2026. Id.; Mot. at 8. For petitions that are instituted, the PTAB’s Final Written Decision would be issued by July 2027. Mot. at 8. Plaintiffs have also noted that the three patents at issue are subject to other litigation and invalidity proceedings. Id. Specifically, on September 22, 2025, Defendant filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Texas against Wybotics, Co.

1 Throughout the order, the pagination for docketed documents is derived from the numbering generated by the ECF system. Ltd. Id. On November, 25, 2025, Wybotic s filed three IPR petitions with the PTAB. Id. The PTAB is expected to decide whether to institute those IPRs by early June 2026. Id. at 9. Wybotics has not filed a motion to stay. Opp. at 7. On January 28, 2026, Plaintiffs filed the instant motion to stay pending the resolution of the IPR proceedings. ECF No. 27. On February 25, 2026, Defendant

filed its opposition. ECF No. 30. At that time, Plaintiff had not filed a Sotera

stipulation in support of its IPR petitions. Id. at 6. On February 27, 2026, Plaintiffs filed Sotera-plus stipulations in all three of its IPRs. Rep. at 6. Under these stipulations, Plaintiffs “expressly agreed that, upon institution of the IPRs, it will not advance any of the following against the challenged claims in this Court: (i) the specific grounds raised in the IPRs; (ii) any other grounds that could have reasonably been raised before the PTAB (i.e., any 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 or 103 grounds based on prior art patents or printed publications); or

(iii) any ground based on a combination of system prior art and the prior art patents or printed publications described in (i) or (ii).” Id. On March 6, 2026, Plaintiffs filed a motion to dismiss. ECF No. 32. On March 11, 2026, Plaintiffs filed their reply. ECF No. 34. “Courts have inherent power to manage their dockets and stay proceedings, including the authority to order a stay pending conclusion of a PTO reexamination.”

Ethicon, Inc. v. Quigg, 849 F.2d 1422, 1426–27 (Fed. Cir. 1988) (citations omitted). Courts consider three factors in determining whether to grant a stay pending IPR: “(1) whether discovery is complete and whether a trial date has been set; (2) whether a stay will simplify the issues in question and trial of the case; and (3) whether a stay would unduly prejudice or present a clear tactical disadvantage to the nonmoving party.” Universal Elecs., Inc. v. Universal Remote Control, Inc., 943 F. Supp. 2d 1028, 1030–31 (C.D. Cal. 2013) (quotations omitted); Zomm, LLC v.

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Beatbot Technology (USA) Co., Ltd.; Deepwater Innovation Technology (Hong Kong) Limited; Xingmai Innovation Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. v. Zodiac Pool Systems LLC, (S.D. Cal. 2026).

Beatbot Technology (USA) Co., Ltd.; Deepwater Innovation Technology (Hong Kong) Limited; Xingmai Innovation Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. v. Zodiac Pool Systems LLC (Beatbot Technology (USA) Co., Ltd.; Deepwater Innovation Technology (Hong Kong) Limited; Xingmai Innovation Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. v. Zodiac Pool Systems LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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