Composite Resources Inc v. Recon Medical LLC

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided November 22, 2021·No. 2:17-cv-01755·Unknown

Opinion

5 * * *

6 COMPOSITE RESOURCES INC., Case No. 2:17-cv-01755-MMD-VCF

7 Plaintiff and Counter Defendant, ORDER

8 v.

10 Defendant and Counter Claimant.

11 13 This is now just a patent case about tourniquets used to stop the flow of blood to a 14 body part when that body part is severely injured where Plaintiff and Counter Defendant 15 Composite Resources, Inc. (“CRI”) seeks only an injunction preventing Defendant and 16 Counter Claimant Recon Medical LLC from selling its allegedly infringing tourniquets. 17 (ECF No. 210.) Before the Court are CRI and Recon’s consolidated motions in limine.1 18 (ECF Nos. 201, 202.) As further explained below, the Court will grant in part, and deny in 19 part, both motions. 21 A motion in limine is a procedural mechanism to limit testimony or evidence in a 22 particular area in advance of trial. See U.S. v. Heller, 551 F.3d 1108, 1111-12 (9th Cir. 23 2009). It is a preliminary motion whose outcome lies entirely within the discretion of the 24 Court. See Luce v. U.S., 469 U.S. 38, 41-42 (1984). To exclude evidence on a motion in 25 limine, the evidence must be “inadmissible on all potential grounds.” See, e.g., Ind. Ins. 26 Co. v. Gen. Elec. Co., 326 F. Supp. 2d 844, 846 (N.D. Ohio 2004). “Unless evidence meets 27 1 this high standard, evidentiary rulings should be deferred until trial so that questions of 2 foundation, relevancy and potential prejudice may be resolved in proper context.” 3 Hawthorne Partners v. AT & T Tech., Inc., 831 F. Supp. 1398, 1400 (N.D. Ill. 1993). This 4 is because although rulings on motions in limine may save “time, cost, effort and 5 preparation, a court is almost always better situated during the actual trial to assess the 6 value and utility of evidence.” Wilkins v. Kmart Corp., 487 F. Supp. 2d 1216, 1218 (D. Kan. 7 2007). 8 In limine rulings are provisional. Such “rulings are not binding on the trial judge . . . 9 [who] may always change h[er] mind during the course of a trial.” Ohler v. U.S., 529 U.S. 10 753, 758 n.3 (2000). “Denial of a motion in limine does not necessarily mean that all 11 evidence contemplated by the motion will be admitted at trial.” Ind. Ins. Co., 326 F. Supp. 12 2d at 846. “Denial merely means that without the context of trial, the court is unable to 13 determine whether the evidence in question should be excluded.” Id. 14 Evidence is relevant if “it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable 15 than it would be without the evidence” and “the fact is of consequence in determining the 16 action.” Fed. R. Evid. 401. Only relevant evidence is admissible. See Fed. R. Evid. 402. 17 Relevant evidence may still be inadmissible “if its probative value is substantially 18 outweighed by a danger of . . . unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, 19 undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence.” Fed. R. Evid. 20 403. “Unfairly prejudicial” evidence is that which has “an undue tendency to suggest 21 decision on an improper basis, commonly, though not necessarily, an emotional one.” U.S. 22 v. Gonzalez-Flores, 418 F.3d 1093, 1098 (9th Cir. 2005) (quoting Old Chief v. U.S., 519 23 U.S. 172, 180 (1997)). 25 The Court first addresses CRI’s consolidated motions in limine, and then Recon’s. 26 /// 27 /// 1 A. CRI’s Motion (ECF No. 201) 2 In its first motion in limine, CRI asks the Court to exclude all evidence and testimony 3 about Ted Westmoreland, including the testimony of him and his wife Amanda. (ECF No. 4 201 at 3-9.) Ted is the purported unnamed co-inventor on the asserted patents, who Mark 5 Esposito left off the patents even though he allegedly helped Mark develop the tourniquets, 6 and Ted and Amanda sold tourniquets before the patents were filed. Recon wants to use 7 the Westmorelands’ testimony to show that the patents were procured through inequitable 8 conduct and/or do not reflect novel inventions. CRI argues all evidence about Ted 9 Westmoreland should be excluded along with Recon’s trial exhibits 1-29 because Recon 10 has not provided other corroborating evidence showing that Ted was involved in the 11 invention, or he helped Mark invent an invalidating prior art tourniquet when he says he 12 did. Recon counters that it has proffered sufficient evidence of corroboration and points to 13 some of the specific exhibits CRI challenges in this motion in limine as showing 14 corroboration. (ECF No. 214 at 5-10.) 15 The Court agrees with Recon. The challenged exhibits are proffered to corroborate 16 the Westmorelands’ testimony, so CRI’s proffered caselaw to the effect that an inventor 17 cannot testify to an invention date without any corroborating evidence does not apply. In 18 addition, the Westmorelands are on Recon’s witness list (ECF No. 215 at 2), so CRI could 19 cross examine them to elicit testimony permitting them similar arguments in closing that it 20 raises in its first motion in limine, which is preferable to barring the Westmorelands’ 21 testimony now because evidence is only properly excluded on a motion in limine if it is 22 inadmissible on all possible grounds. Moreover, the Court does not have copies of the 23 exhibits CRI is challenging—because CRI did not provide them—so the Court cannot 24 evaluate CRI’s arguments about each individual piece of evidence. This motion is 25 accordingly denied without prejudice. 26 In its second motion in limine, CRI asks the Court to exclude physical exhibits and 27 evidence of alleged versions of early CAT tourniquets. (ECF No. 201 at 9-12.) Recon 1 counters that, as to the physical exhibits, there is deposition testimony establishing that 2 the exhibits are what Recon claims they are, and there is no requirement that an exhibit 3 must be authenticated pretrial in a deposition to be admissible at trial. (ECF No. 214 at 4 10-14.) The Court again agrees with Recon. Recon can attempt to admit the physical 5 exhibits at trial. Further, this motion in limine also argues for the exclusion of particular 6 exhibits that the Court does not have because CRI did not submit copies of them along 7 with its motion, so the Court denies this motion in limine without prejudice to the extent 8 CRI seeks exclusion of particular exhibits. And in sum, the Court denies CRI’s second 9 motion in limine. 10 In CRI’s third motion in limine, CRI asks the Court to preclude Recon from arguing 11 at trial that the asserted patents are invalid as indefinite because the claim language mixes 12 apparatus and method steps. (ECF No. 201 at 12-13.) Recon counters that it may still 13 argue indefiniteness at trial because the Court denied its prior motion for summary 14 judgment rather than affirmatively granting a motion filed by CRI declaring that the 15 asserted claims are not indefinite. (ECF No. 214 at 14.) While the Court agrees with Recon 16 to a point, the Court will nonetheless grant this motion in limine because the Court explicitly 17 rejected Recon’s argument that the asserted patents are invalid as indefinite because the 18 claim language mixes apparatus and method steps in the orders docketed at ECF Nos. 19 152 at 10-14, and 159 at 2-3.

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