CelLink Corp. v. Manaflex LLC

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedApril 9, 2025
Docket4:23-cv-04231
StatusUnknown

This text of CelLink Corp. v. Manaflex LLC (CelLink Corp. v. Manaflex LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CelLink Corp. v. Manaflex LLC, (N.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 CELLINK CORP., Case No. 23-cv-04231-HSG

8 Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS MANAFLEX LLC, ROBERT LANE, 9 v. AND AUGUSTO BARTON’S MOTION TO DISMISS 10 MANAFLEX LLC, et al., Re: Dkt. No. 121 11 Defendants.

12 13 Pending before the Court is Defendants Manaflex LLC (“Manaflex”), Robert Lane, 14 Augusto Barton’s (collectively, “Defendants”) motion to dismiss Counts IV and VII-IX of 15 Plaintiff CelLink Corp.’s (“CelLink”) First Amended Complaint (“FAC”). Dkt. No. 121 (“Mot.”). 16 The Court finds this matter appropriate for disposition without oral argument and takes it under 17 submission. See Civil L.R. 7-1(b). For the following reasons, the Court GRANTS Defendants’ 18 motion. 19 I. BACKGROUND 20 On August 18, 2023, CelLink filed suit against Defendant Manaflex, accusing Manaflex of 21 infringing U.S. Patent No. 11,116,070 (the “’070 Patent”) and misappropriating CelLink’s trade 22 secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1836. See Dkt. No. 1. On 23 September 9, 2024, CelLink moved for leave to amend its complaint. Dkt. No. 95. CelLink’s 24 FAC named Messrs. Lane and Barton as defendants to the trade secret misappropriation claim, 25 added patent infringement claims against Manaflex for U.S. Patent Nos. 12,035,459 (the “’459 26 Patent”) and 12,040,511 (the “’511 Patent”), and added three correction of inventorship claims 27 against Manaflex for U.S. Patent Nos. 11,490,523 (the “’523 Patent”), 11,026,332 (the “’332 1 (“FAC”). The Court granted CelLink’s motion. Dkt. No. 105. Defendants now move to dismiss 2 CelLink’s correction of inventorship claims against Manaflex and CelLink’s DTSA claim against 3 Messrs. Lane and Barton. 4 II. LEGAL STANDARD 5 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a) requires that a complaint contain “a short and plain 6 statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). A 7 defendant may move to dismiss a complaint for failing to state a claim upon which relief can be 8 granted under Rule 12(b)(6). “Dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) is appropriate only where the 9 complaint lacks a cognizable legal theory or sufficient facts to support a cognizable legal theory.” 10 Mendiondo v. Centinela Hosp. Med. Ctr., 521 F.3d 1097, 1104 (9th Cir. 2008). To survive a Rule 11 12(b)(6) motion, a plaintiff need only plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible 12 on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). A claim is facially plausible 13 when a plaintiff pleads “factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that 14 the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). 15 In reviewing the plausibility of a complaint, courts “accept factual allegations in the 16 complaint as true and construe the pleadings in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” 17 Manzarek v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 519 F.3d 1025, 1031 (9th Cir. 2008). Nevertheless, 18 courts do not “accept as true allegations that are merely conclusory, unwarranted deductions of 19 fact, or unreasonable inferences.” In re Gilead Scis. Secs. Litig., 536 F.3d 1049, 1055 (9th Cir. 20 2008) (quoting Sprewell v. Golden State Warriors, 266 F.3d 979, 988 (9th Cir. 2001)). On a 21 motion to dismiss counterclaims, the court “applies these same standard” and “constru[es] the 22 pleadings in the light most favorable to the pleading party.” AbCellera Biologics Inc. v. Bruker 23 Cellular Analysis, No. 20-CV-08624-JST, 2024 WL 37213, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 2, 2024) (citation 24 omitted). 25 III. DISCUSSION 26 A. Counts VII–IX (Correction of Inventorship) Against Defendant Manaflex 27 Counts VII–IX of CelLink’s FAC seek to correct the inventorship of the Manaflex Patents 1 Tsao as named inventors” (collectively, the “CelLink Inventors”). FAC ¶¶ 116–130. CelLink 2 alleges that the Manaflex Patents “claim[] subject matter that was not conceived by Mr. Lane and 3 which Manaflex obtained from discussions with [Plaintiff’s] employees.” Id. ¶¶ 118, 123, 128. 4 CelLink further alleges that the Manaflex Patents “claim[] ideas conceived by [the CelLink 5 Inventors], which were obtained by Mr. Lane through the disclosure of [Plaintiff’s] [t]rade 6 [s]ecrets.” Id. ¶¶ 119, 124, 129. Manaflex moves to dismiss CelLink’s correction of inventorship 7 claims, arguing CelLink has failed to plead any of the necessary support for them. The Court 8 agrees with Manaflex. 9 “A person who alleges that he is a co-inventor of the invention claimed in an issued patent 10 who was not listed as an inventor on the patent may bring a cause of action to correct inventorship 11 in a district court under 35 U.S.C. § 256.”1 Vapor Point LLC v. Moorhead, 832 F.3d 1343, 1348 12 (Fed. Cir. 2016) To plead a correction of inventorship claim under § 256, a plaintiff must allege 13 facts from which a court could infer (1) the plaintiff “made a more-than-insignificant contribution 14 to the conception of at least one claim of the patent” and (2) “there was some element of joint 15 behavior, such as ‘collaboration or working under common direction.’” Fibrogen, Inc. v. 16 Hangzhou Andao Pharm. Ltd., No. 22-cv-07148-AMO, 2024 WL 1199018, at *4 (N.D. Cal. 17 March 20, 2024) (quotations and citation omitted). 18 CelLink’s FAC fails to allege facts plausibly supporting an inference that any of the 19 CelLink Inventors contributed to the inventions claimed in the Manaflex Patents. See Eastman v. 20 Apple, Inc., No. 18-CV-05929-JST, 2019 WL 1559015, at *3 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 10, 2019) (“[A] 21 plausible § 256 claim requires some allegation that the putative co-inventor[s] ‘contribute[d] 22 something to the claimed invention.’”) (quoting Caterpillar Inc. v. Sturman Indus., Inc., 387 F.3d 23 1358, 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2004)). The FAC does not identify a single claim or claim limitation to 24 which the CelLink Inventors allegedly contributed and instead parrots the elements of a correction 25 of inventorship claim. See, e.g., FAC ¶ 118 (“The ’523 Patent claims subject matter that was not 26 1 “Section 256 addresses two types of inventorship errors—misjoinder and nonjoinder.” CODA 27 Dev. S.R.O. v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 916 F.3d 1350, 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2019). “Misjoinder 1 conceived by Mr. Lane and which Manaflex obtained from discussions with CelLink employees. 2 Lane and Barton obtained and derived some or all of this subject matter through contact with 3 CelLink . . . .”); see also ¶¶ 123, 128. While a plaintiff need not “plead [its] inventorship theories 4 in sufficient detail to carry [its] ultimate evidentiary burden at the motion to dismiss stage[,]” more 5 specificity is required here.

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Related

Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly
550 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Ashcroft v. Iqbal
556 U.S. 662 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Manzarek v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance
519 F.3d 1025 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)
Mendiondo v. Centinela Hospital Medical Center
521 F.3d 1097 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)
Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena
592 F.3d 954 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
In Re Gilead Sciences Securities Litigation
536 F.3d 1049 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)
Vapor Point LLC v. Moorhead
832 F.3d 1343 (Federal Circuit, 2016)
Coda Dev. S.R.O. v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
916 F.3d 1350 (Federal Circuit, 2019)
Sprewell v. Golden State Warriors
266 F.3d 979 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)
Broker Genius, Inc. v. Zalta
280 F. Supp. 3d 495 (S.D. New York, 2017)

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Bluebook (online)
CelLink Corp. v. Manaflex LLC, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cellink-corp-v-manaflex-llc-cand-2025.