Cardionet, LLC v. Mednet Healthcare Technologies, Inc.

146 F. Supp. 3d 671, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158067, 2015 WL 7428491
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 23, 2015
DocketCIVIL ACTION No. 12-2517
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 146 F. Supp. 3d 671 (Cardionet, LLC v. Mednet Healthcare Technologies, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cardionet, LLC v. Mednet Healthcare Technologies, Inc., 146 F. Supp. 3d 671, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158067, 2015 WL 7428491 (E.D. Pa. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

Juan R. Sánchez, District Judge.

Plaintiffs CardioNet, LLC and Braemar Manufacturing, LLC (collectively, Car-dioNet) ask this Court to find Defendant MedTel24, Inc. (MedTel) in contempt of the January 31, 2014, Consent Judgment by which the parties agreed to resolve this patent infringement action and to impose appropriate contempt sanctions. CardioNet also asks the Court to impose sanctions on MedTel and its counsel for making false statements and frivolous arguments in its motions for relief from, and to stay enforcement of, the Consent Judgment, which this Court denied on July 22, 2015. This Court heard argument on the motions on May 7, 2015, and held a contempt hearing on September 21 and 29, 2015. On October 2, 2015, the Court issued an Order finding MedTel in contempt of ¶ 16 of the Consent Judgment and directing MedTel to comply with its obligations under that provision within 21 days. The Court reserved ruling on whether MedTel.is also in contempt of ¶¶ 14 and 19 of the Consent Judgment and CardioNet’s request for damages. The Court issues this Memorandum to address these issues as well as CardioNet’s motion for sanctions.

Upon consideration of the arguments and evidence presented by the parties in their written submissions, at the oral argument; and at the contempt hearing, and for the reasons set forth below, the Court finds CardioNet has proved by clear and convincing evidence that MedTeHs in contempt of ¶ 14 as well as ¶ 16 of the Consent Judgment, and will award CardioNet damages for lost profits and attorneys’ fees and costs as set forth herein. Car-dioNet’s motion for sanctions will be denied.

FACTS •

In the underlying patent infringement action, CarditiNet sued Mednet Healthcare Technologies (Mednet), three companies affiliated with Mednet,1 and three customers of Mednet, including MedTel,2 alleging [677]*677Defendants were infringing five patents owned by CardioNet by making, - using, selling, and/or offering for'sale the Heart-rak ECAT System, a cardiac monitoring system used to monitor, analyze, and report patient cardiac activity during a period prescribed by the patient’s physician. The Heartrak ECAT System consists primarily of two devices — a Monitor and a Communicator — and software, known as CardioStation, which is configured to operate at a monitoring center in conjunction with the devices. See Defs.’ Pretrial Mem. 12, ECF No. 239; see also Consent J. ¶ 13 (defining the Heartrak ECAT System as including a Monitor, a Communicator,.and CardioStation or eCardioStation software). The Monitor is carried by the patient and is used to acquire data about the patient’s cardiac activity during the monitoring period. See Defs.’ Pretrial Mem. 12; Finkelmeier Decl. ¶ 6, ECF No. 274-2. The Communicator is also carried by the patient and is used to receive data regarding the. patient’s cardiac activity from the Monitor and transmit the data to a monitoring center through cellular networks. See Defs.’ Pretrial Mem. 12; Finkelmeier Decl. ¶ 6. The. software is used to process signals received from the Monitor and Communicator so that a report can be provided to the patient’s physician. See Contempt Hr’g Tr. 108, 224, Sept. 21, 2015 (hereinafter “Contempt Hr’g Tr. I”); Alima Dep. 14,18-19.

MedTel is in the business of “remote cardiac monitoring.” MedTel’s Opp’n to Pis.’ Contempt Mot. 2. Prior to the entry of the Consent Judgment, 'MedTel’s business included selling Heartrak ECAT devices (Monitors and Communicators) to physicians and providing monitoring services for those devices.3 See Contempt Hr’g Tr. I 223-24. Under an October 2011 Purchase, Resale and License Agreement (License Agreement) with UMI, a Mednet-affiliated . company, MedTel purchased Heartrak ECAT devices from UMI and resold the devices to physicians who then entered into. monitoring services agreements with MedTel. See DX-13 (hereinafter “License Agreement”) 1 & Ex. A; PX-26 (sample monitoring services agreement); Contempt Hr’g Tr. I 108-09. Med-Tel also licensed CardioStation software from UMI for use in connection with the devices.4 See License Agreement 5 & Ex. B. Using the CardioStation software, Med-Tel provided monitoring services to. , physicians pursuant to the monitoring services agreements, earning revenue from the monitoring on a fee-for-service basis.5 See [678]*678Contempt Hr’g Tr. 1 118,160, 221; DX-1 at 6. According to Lee Sanders, MedTel’s CEO, in 2012, MedTel’s first year of operations, sales of ECAT devices accounted for 40% of MedTel’s net profits. See Contempt Hr’g Tr. I 180-81, 235. These devices then became a source of ongoing monitoring revenue for MedTel. See id. at 224. Although MedTel functioned as both a seller of Heartrak ECAT devices and a provider of monitoring services for the devices, the Complaint in this action singled out the company’s role as a monitoring services provider. See Compl. ¶¶ 13, 19-21, 30.

On January 31, 2014, days before the February 3, 2014, trial date, the parties agreed to settle this action and presented this Court with a fully executed Consent Judgment, which the Court signed the same day. In ¶ 13 of the Consent Judgment, the parties agreed “[m]aking, using, offering to sell or selling in the United States of the accused Heartrak ECAT System, including (i) a Heartrak ECAT Monitor, (ii) a Heartrak ECAT Communicator; and (iii) CardioStation or eCardios-tation software infringes [the five Car-dioNet patents at issue in the case].”6 Consent J. ¶ 13. The Consent Judgment goes on, in ¶ 14, to “permanently enjoin[ ] and restraint” all Defendants, including MedTel, “from infringing, contributorily infringing or inducing the infringement of the Patents in Suit,” except as licensed or otherwise agreed to by the parties. Id. ¶ 14. While ¶ 16 of the Consent Judgment grants MedTel and the other customer Defendants (i.e., RhythmWatch and AMI) “a limited, non-exclusive license to make, use, sell or offer' for sale, the Heartrak ECAT' System in the United States for a period of one (1) year from the date of this Consent Judgment,”' it provides that “[thereafter, all inventories of the Heart-[679]*679rak ECAT System in the United States belonging to or held by Medtel247...in-cluding all related software/source code, including CardioStation and eCardioStation, hardware, including the Heartrak ECAT Monitor and Communicator, and documentation shall be delivered, at Med-tel24’s.. .expense[], to Plaintiffs.. .to be received by Plaintiffs no later than 15 days after the one year date.” Id. ¶ 16 (emphasis added). Finally, ¶ 19 of the Consent Judgment prohibits all Defendants from

transfer[ring], assign[ing], selling] or otherwise disclosing] or mak[ing] available to any third party any inventory or materials belonging to or held by. them relating to the Heartrak ECAT System, including all related software/source code, CardioStation, eCardioStation, hardware, including the Heartrak ECAT Monitor and Communicator, and documentation, outside the scope of their conventional activities as cardiac monitoring service providers, without obtaining prior written permission from Car-dioNet and Braemar.

Id. ¶ 19.

After the Consent Judgment was entered, MedTel continued to sell Heartrak ECAT devices to physicians to some extent 8

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Bluebook (online)
146 F. Supp. 3d 671, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158067, 2015 WL 7428491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cardionet-llc-v-mednet-healthcare-technologies-inc-paed-2015.