Dynamite Marketing, Inc. v. the Wowline, Inc.

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit·Decided September 12, 2025·No. 24-1523·Unpublished

Opinion

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee

v.

THE WOWLINE, INC., SHERMAN SPECIALTY LLC, SHERMAN SPECIALTY, INC, Defendants-Appellants

WWW.SUPERIORPROMOS.COM, WWW.USIMPRINTS.COM, WWW.4ALLPROMOS.COM, UNKNOWN WEBSITES 1-10, VARIOUS JOHN DOES 1-10, UNKNOWN ENTITIES 1-10, Defendants

-------------------------------------------------

DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC., Plaintiff

v.

4TH DIMENSON INNOVATIONS, INC., BY AND THROUGH ITS FORMER OFFICER LAERIK COOPER, LAERIK COOPER, Defendants

2024-1523, 2024-1525

2 DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC. v. THE WOWLINE, INC.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Nos. 2:19-cv-03067-GRB- LGD, 2:22-cv-01627-GRB-AYS, Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown.

Decided: September 12, 2025

MICHAEL CUKOR, McGeary Cukor, Bernardsville, NJ, argued for plaintiff-appellee. Also represented by VINCENT MCGEARY.

JEFFREY LOUIS SNOW, Pryor Cashman LLP, New York, NY, argued for defendants-appellants. Also represented by JOSEPH VINCENT MICALI.

Before PROST, CLEVENGER, and CUNNINGHAM, Circuit Judges.

CLEVENGER, Circuit Judge. Sherman Specialty, Inc., d/b/a The WowLine, Inc., and Sherman Specialty, LLC (collectively “Sherman”) appeal the final decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (“District Court”), denying Sherman’s post-verdict motions for inventorship, invalidity , and non-infringement of Dynamite Marketing, Inc.’s (“Dynamite”) U.S. Patent No. D751,877 S (“D877 Patent”), denying remittitur or a new trial on the jury’s award of lost profit damages to Dynamite, and awarding Dynamite attorney ’s fees. For the reasons stated below, we dismiss -in-part and affirm-in-part.

DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC. v. THE WOWLINE, INC. 3

BACKGROUND

I

In early 2013, Alexander Shlaferman (“Shlaferman”), the principal of Vante Inc. (“Vante”), conceived of a design for a rectangular credit-card sized multi-tool, later named the Wallet Ninja. After creating preliminary sketches, Shlaferman contracted the freelance services of a mechanical engineer, LaErik Cooper (“Cooper”), to create manufacturing drawings for the Wallet Ninja. Through their frequent communication, the Wallet Ninja’s design iteratively evolved into its final form, submitted in the application for the D877 Patent.

Cooper acknowledged that Shlaferman was “in charge of the project” for the design process and “had the final say on every single design.” J.A. 4614. Throughout the patent ’s prosecution, Shlaferman’s patent attorney was aware of Cooper’s involvement with the Wallet Ninja and communicated directly with Cooper about producing the drawings for the patent application. Cooper never asked to be included as an inventor on the application. Over two years after filing the application, on March 22, 20161, the D877 Patent was granted listing Shlaferman as the sole inventor . The Wallet Ninja boasted many features, including a ruler, various sized screwdrivers, a set of hex wrenches, a letter opener, can opener, and box cutter. The Wallet Ninja product, incorporating Shlaferman’s design, and the D877 Patent are depicted below.

1 Prior to the patent’s issuance, Shlaferman assigned

all his rights in the D877 Patent’s application to Vante. He reassigned those rights to Dynamite Marketing, Inc., Vante’s successor, on May 18, 2018.

4 DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC. v. THE WOWLINE, INC.

Figure 1: The Wallet Ninja Figure 2: D877 Patent (solid lines show the claimed design)

The Wallet Ninja began selling in 2014. By mid-2017, approximately 1.9 million units had been sold. In March 2017, Robert Davila, an executive at Dynamite’s competitor Sherman, emailed pictures of the Wallet Ninja to three independent entities, requesting them to source the product . In July 2017, Sherman began selling its own series of wallet-compatible multi-tool products, titled the TOL4 series .2 Sherman received its first cease-and-desist letter on behalf of Vante in early 2018.

Shortly thereafter, Sherman redesigned its TOL4 series of products (“Redesigned TOL4”). The changes to the Redesigned TOL4 were minimal, reordering the hex nuts along the bottom edge in descending size order and mirroring the letter opener to the top left, along with other small adjustments. A comparison of the D877 Patent to the Original and Redesigned TOL4 products is presented below.

2 Sherman concedes that its first series of TOL4 prod-

ucts infringed the D877 Patent (“Original TOL4”).

DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC. v. THE WOWLINE, INC. 5

Figure 2 (repeated): D877 Patent (solid lines show the claimed design)

Figure 3: Original TOL4 Figure 4: Redesigned TOL4

Sherman received a second cease-and-desist letter in 2018 regarding the Redesigned TOL4. In a response letter, Sherman stated it was confident that its new design did not infringe the D877 Patent. Despite Sherman’s receipt of both cease-and-desist letters, Sherman continued selling its Original TOL4 and Redesigned TOL4 products until all remaining units, estimated to be between 30–40,000 units, were purchased.

II

Two disputes ensued. First, on May 22, 2019, Dynamite sued Sherman in the District Court, alleging willful infringement of the D877 Patent. Sherman counterclaimed seeking declaratory judgment that Sherman’s TOL4 products did not infringe, and that the D877 Patent 6 DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC. v. THE WOWLINE, INC.

is invalid as obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103 and invalid as a primarily functional design. During discovery, the matter of Cooper’s assistance to Shlaferman surfaced and raised the question of whether Cooper’s work amounted to a contribution to the patent sufficient to require him to be named the inventor, or at least a co-inventor, and thus owner or co-owner. If Cooper was entitled to such status, Dynamite’s suit against Sherman would require dismissal because Dynamite failed to name Cooper as a plaintiff. See Ethicon, Inc. v. U.S. Surgical Corp., 135 F.3d 1456, 1467– 68 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (“An action for infringement must join as plaintiffs all co-owners.”). Consequently, in early 2021, Dynamite sought Cooper’s voluntary agreement to be added as a co-inventor of the D877 Patent and to assign all his patent rights to Dynamite.

When that effort failed, Dynamite filed suit on September 21, 2021, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Cooper and his company, 4th Dimension Innovations, Inc., seeking declaratory judgment that it was the sole owner of the D877 Patent and that its principal, Shlaferman, was the sole inventor. Pl.’s Compl., Dynamite Marketing, Inc. v. 4th Dimension Innovations , Inc., Case No. 6:21-cv-1554-GAP-EJK (M.D. Fla. Sept. 21, 2021) (Dkt. No. 1). On November 22, 2021, Cooper counterclaimed for correction of inventorship under 35 U.S.C. § 256, alleging that his participation in the development of the Wallet Ninja made him the sole owner and inventor, or at least a co-owner and co-inventor, of the D877 Patent. Def.’s Answer and Countercls., Dynamite Marketing, Inc. v. 4th Dimension Innovations, Inc., Case No. 6:21-cv-1554-GAP-EJK (M.D. Fla. Nov. 22, 2021) (Dkt. No. 13).

One week later, on November 29, Cooper signed a nunc pro tunc agreement assigning Sherman “all rights, title, and interest, if any, that Cooper may have in the [D]877 Patent,” retroactively effective to February 26, 2014. J.A. 5731. As part of the assignment, Cooper agreed to

DYNAMITE MARKETING, INC. v. THE WOWLINE, INC. 7

participate to any extent necessary in the New York action. J.A. 5732–33. In exchange, Sherman agreed to cover all costs and expense of the Florida action, as well as any costs incurred in Cooper’s participation in the New York action. J.A. 5731–33.

III

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