Dethmers Manufacturing Co. v. Automatic Equipment Mfg. Co.

189 F.R.D. 526, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17324, 1999 WL 1005000
District Court, N.D. Iowa·Decided November 3, 1999·No. No. C 96-4061-MWB·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER FOR ENTRY OF JUDGMENT PURSUANT TO RULE 54(b)

BENNETT, District Judge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND........................527

A. The Claims And Counter-

claims .......................527

B. Rulings On Dispositive Mo-

tions ........................528

II. LEGAL ANALYSIS.................530

A. Language And Purpose Of

Rule 51(b) ...................530

B. Requirements Of The Rule.......531

1. Finality........._..........531

2. No just reason for delay ... .532

C. Effect Of Rule 51(b) Certifica-

tion .........................532

D. Certification Here...............533

1. Finality ...................533

2. No just reason for delay ... .535

III. CONCLUSION .....................535

In light of decisions dismissing or entering summary judgment on all of the federal claims presented in this lawsuit, the court will consider the appropriateness of entering judgment on some, but not all, claims pursuant to Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Because the claims on which such judgment may be entered in this case are patent or patent-related claims, the court will look to decisions of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for guidance on the requirements for entry of judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b).

I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

A. The Claims And Counterclaims

The parties to this lawsuit are both makers of tow bars used to tow an automobile behind a recreational vehicle (R.V.). The principal claims and counterclaims in this lawsuit originally concerned infringement, validity, and enforceability of the parties’ patents for such tow bars. Dethmers’s complaint, as amended, included the following ten claims: Count I for declaratory judgment of non-infringe[528]*528ment, invalidity, and unenforceability of Automatic’s patent, United States Patent No. 5,356,166 (the ’166 patent or the Automatic patent); Count II for damages, injunctive, and declaratory relief, arising from alleged infringement by Automatic of Dethmers’s own patent, United States Patent No. Re32,482 (the Re482 patent or the Dethmers reissue patent), which is a reissue of United States Patent No. 5,232,240 (the ’240 patent or the Johnson patent); Count III for breach of contract, asserted by Dethmers as the assignee of Richard A. Parent, and concerning the “Parent Invention”; Count IV, a “statutory” claim, for misappropriation by Automatic of a trade secret, the “Parent Invention”; Count V, a “common-law” claim, for misappropriation of a trade secret, again, the “Parent Invention”; Count VI for conversion of the “Parent Invention”; Count VII for misappropriation of the “intellectual property” of Dethmers, again identified as the “Parent Invention”; Count VIII for unjust enrichment by Automatic as the result of its use of design concepts of the “Parent Invention” in its products; Count IX for promissory estoppel relating to the “Parent Invention”; and Count X for quantum meruit, also relating to the “Parent invention.”

Automatic’s counterclaims originally consisted of the following: Count I for declaratory judgment that Dethmers’s original ’240 patent and its Re482 patent are invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed by Automatic’s products; Count II for “false advertising” in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a); Count III for “false marking” in violation of 35 U.S.C. § 292; Count IV for infringement of Automatic’s ’166 patent; and Count V for declaratory judgment of non-infringement, invalidity, and unenforceability of Dethmers’s United States Patent No. 5,765,851 (the Parent patent or the ’851 patent).

B. Rulings On Dispositive Motions

As a result of this court’s rulings on summary judgment motions, see Dethmers Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Automatic Equip. Mfg. Co., 23 F.Supp.2d 974 (N.D.Iowa 1998) (Dethmers I), appeal denied, 185 F.3d 879, 1998 WL 968502 (Fed.Cir.1998) (table opinion); Dethmers Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Automatic Equip. Mfg. Co., 70 F.Supp.2d 944 (N.D.Iowa 1999) (Dethmers II), no patent claims, and none of Automatic’s counterclaims, remain at issue here. The disposition of these claims and counterclaims sets the stage for entry of final judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on less than all of the claims in the action.

Specifically, in Dethmers I, the court ruled as follows:

1. Automatic’s December 5, 1997, motion to dismiss or in the alternative for partial summary judgment, for more definite statement, and to strike is granted as to summary judgment on all prayers for punitive damages on state-law claims, but otherwise denied.
2. Automatic’s March 11, 1998, motion for summary judgment on the invalidity of the Re482 patent is denied as to insufficiency of “errors,” and assertion that the reissue patent is not for the “same invention” as the original ’240 patent, but granted as to the inadequacy of the reissue declaration, on the ground that it does not comply with the detail required by the decisions of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Nupla [Corp. v. IXL Mfg. Co., Inc., 114 F.3d 191 (Fed.Cir.1997),] and [In re] Constant, [827 F.2d 728 (Fed.Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 894, 108 S.Ct. 251, 98 L.Ed.2d 209 (1987),] and the former version of 37 C.F.R. § 1.175, and the Re482 patent is hereby declared invalid.
3. Dethmers’s June 2, 1998, motion for summary judgment or in the alternative partial summary judgment on patent invalidity, unenforceability, and non-infringement is denied in its entirety.

Dethmers I, 23 F.Supp.2d at 1044. Thus, the ruling in Dethmers I would support the entry of final judgment on Count II of Dethmers’s complaint and Count I of Automatic’s Counterclaim.1

In Dethmers II, the court ruled as follows:

[529]

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Dethmers Manufacturing Co. v. Automatic Equipment Mfg. Co., 189 F.R.D. 526, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17324, 1999 WL 1005000 (N.D. Iowa 1999).

189 F.R.D. 526 (Dethmers Manufacturing Co. v. Automatic Equipment Mfg. Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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