Cif Licensing, LLC v. Agere Systems Inc.

727 F. Supp. 2d 337, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77273, 2010 WL 3001775
CourtDistrict Court, D. Delaware
DecidedJuly 30, 2010
DocketCivil Action 07-170-JJF
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 727 F. Supp. 2d 337 (Cif Licensing, LLC v. Agere Systems Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cif Licensing, LLC v. Agere Systems Inc., 727 F. Supp. 2d 337, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77273, 2010 WL 3001775 (D. Del. 2010).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

FARNAN, District Judge.

Presently before the Court are Defendant Agere System Inc.’s Renewed Motions For Judgment As A Matter Of Law of: 1) No Direct Infringement Of Any Claims Of Any Of The Asserted Patents (D.I. 405); 2) No Indirect Infringement Of Any Claim Of U.S. Patent No. 6,198,776 (D.I. 407); 3) No Infringement Under A Theory Of Component Liability Pursuant To 35 U.S.C. Section 271(f) (D.I. 409); and 4) No Infringement Under The Doctrine Of Equivalents (D.I. 411). Also before the Court is Plaintiff CIF Licensing, LLC’s Motion To Renew Its Motions For Judgment As A Matter Of Law Or In The Alternative For A New Trial (D.I. 394) that: 1) U.S. Patent No. 5,048,054 Is Infringed and Is Not Invalid (D.I. 365) 1 ; 2) U.S. Patent No. 5,446,758 Is Infringed and Is Not Invalid (D.I. 366) 2 ; 3) U.S. Patent No. 5,428,641 Is Infringed and Is Not Invalid (D.I. 367) 3 ; and 4) U.S. Patent No. 6,198,776 Is Infringed and Is Not Invalid (D.I. 368) 4 . 5

*343 BACKGROUND

On March 23, 2007, Plaintiff CIF Licensing, LLC, d/b/a GE Licensing (“Plaintiff’) filed this patent infringement action, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,048,054 (the “'054 patent”), 5,428,641 (the “'641 patent”), 6,198,776 (the “'776 patent”), and 5,446,758 (the “'758 patent”) (collectively, the “patents-in-suit”) by Defendant Agere Systems Inc. (“Defendant”). The accused products are hardware and software modems and modem systems manufactured by or sold by Defendant. A jury trial was held from February 2, 2009, through February 13, 2009. On February 17, 2009, the jury entered a Special Verdict Form specifying their findings as to direct infringement, indirect infringement, willful infringement, anticipation, and obviousness for each asserted patent, as well as their findings with respect to reasonable royalty rates and total damages. (D.I. 371.) Specifically, the jury found: 1) direct infringement of all asserted claims of all four patents-in-suit; 2) indirect infringement of all asserted claims of the '776 patent; 3) no indirect infringement of any asserted claim of the '054, '641, and '758 patents; 4) willful infringement of the '641 and '776 patents; 5) no willful infringement of the '054 and '758 patents; 6) anticipation of all asserted claims of the '054 and '758 patents; and 7) obviousness of all asserted claims of the '054, '758, and '776 patents. (Id.)

On February 9, 2009, at the close of Plaintiffs case-in-chief, Defendant orally moved, inter alia, for judgment as a matter of law, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a), that Plaintiff did not establish: 1) direct infringement as to any claims of the asserted patents; 2) indirect infringement as to any claims of the asserted patents; 3) liability under 35 U.S.C. § 271(f); and 4) infringement under the Doctrine of Equivalents. Trial Tr. Vol. 4, 1016-1017 (D.I. 382). After trial, Defendant renewed and briefed these motions under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b). (D.I. 405, 407, 409, 411.) On February 13, 2009, before the case was given to the jury, Plaintiff filed the motions for judgment as a matter of law, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) (D.I. 365, 366, 367, 368), that it presently renews under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b). (D.I. 394.)

LEGAL STANDARD

To prevail on a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law following a jury trial, the moving party “ ‘must show that the jury’s findings, presumed or express are not supported by substantial evidence or, if they were, that the legal conclusion(s) implied [by] the jury’s verdict cannot in law be supported by those findings.’ ” Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344, 1348 (Fed.Cir.1998) (citing Perkin-Elmer Corp. v. Computervision Corp., 732 F.2d 888, 893 (Fed.Cir.1984)); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) (stating that a court may grant judgment as a matter of law when “a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue.”). In assessing the sufficiency of the evidence, the court must review all of the evidence in the record, viewing it in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and giving the non-moving party the benefit of all reasonable inferences that could be drawn from it. Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 150, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Edüd 105 (2000). The court may not weigh the evidence, make credibility determinations, or substitute its version of the facts for the jury’s version. Id. Rather, the court must determine “whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict winner, a reasonable jury could have found for the prevailing party.” Johnson v. Campbell, 332 F.3d 199, 204 (3d Cir.2003). Judgment as a matter of law should be granted “sparingly” in situations where “ ‘the record is critically devoid of the minimum quantum *344 of evidence’ in support of the verdict.” Id. (citing Gomez v. Allegheny Health Servs., Inc., 71 F.3d 1079, 1083 (3d Cir.1995)).

DISCUSSION

I. Direct Infringement

A. Defendant’s Renewed Motion For Judgment As A Matter Of Law Of No Direct Infringement Of Any Claims Of Any Of The Asserted Patents (D.I. 4,05)

The jury found that Defendant directly infringed all asserted claims of the '054, '641, '758, and '776 patents. (D.I. 371.) By its Motion, Defendant contends that Plaintiff failed to introduce sufficient evidence correlating the infringement analysis of its expert, Dr. Harry Bims, to Defendant’s actual accused products because Dr. Bims did not “map[ ] each and every limitation in the claims of the [a]sserted [pjatents to any individual [a]ccused [p]roduct.” (D.I. 406, at 7.) Further, Defendant contends that Dr. Bims’ infringement analysis was inherently flawed. (Id. at 8.) Because Dr. Bims examined some (but not all) of the software source code provided by Defendant, and he did not examine any physical examples of the accused products, according to Defendant, Dr.

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727 F. Supp. 2d 337, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77273, 2010 WL 3001775, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cif-licensing-llc-v-agere-systems-inc-ded-2010.