Engineered Products & Services, Inc. v. Echo Engineering & Production Supplies, Inc.

666 F. Supp. 2d 938, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100459, 2009 WL 3380385
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedOctober 20, 2009
DocketCase 09C0460
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 666 F. Supp. 2d 938 (Engineered Products & Services, Inc. v. Echo Engineering & Production Supplies, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Engineered Products & Services, Inc. v. Echo Engineering & Production Supplies, Inc., 666 F. Supp. 2d 938, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100459, 2009 WL 3380385 (E.D. Wis. 2009).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

LYNN ADELMAN, District Judge.

On May 5, 2009, plaintiff Engineered Products & Services, Inc. filed this patent infringement action, alleging that defendant Echo Engineering & Production Supplies, Inc. was manufacturing and selling a device that infringed on a patent that it held, U.S. Patent 6,656,558 (“the '558 patent”). On May 8, 2009, defendant filed a declaratory judgment action in the Southern District of Indiana, seeking a declaration that the device in question does not infringe the '558 patent and that the '558 patent is invalid. The parties to both actions as well as the issues presented are the same. Before me now are plaintiffs motion to enjoin defendant from proceeding with the Indiana action and defendant’s motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(3) to dismiss this action for improper venue and alternatively under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) to transfer the case to the Southern District of Indiana.

The relevant facts are as follows: plaintiff is a Wisconsin corporation headquartered in Franksville, Wisconsin. Defendant is an Indiana corporation headquartered in Indianapolis. The '558 patent covers a high temperature resistant masking device. Defendant manufactures and offers for sale the alleged infringing product in Indiana. Defendant has sold the device to consumers in a number of states and in Germany. Defendant has a sales agent who sometimes visits Wisconsin, and it also sells via a catalogue and the internet. Until recently, defendant had an office in Franklin, Wisconsin. Defendant has sold two of the alleged infringing devices to consumers in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and it has shipped the devices to them. The total value of the two sales was $70.

*941 I must first determine the source of the governing law. Because of the importance of national uniformity, the law of the Federal Circuit rather than the regional circuits governs most issues in patent cases. Lab. Corp. of Am. Holdings v. Chiron Corp., 384 F.3d 1326, 1328 (Fed.Cir.2004). Thus, Federal Circuit law gov erns applications for injunctions when infringement and declaratory judgment actions involving the same patent and the same parties (“mirror actions”) are brought in different district courts. Id. at 1331. Federal Circuit law also governs issues of personal jurisdiction because they are “intimately involved with the substance of the patent laws.” Wayne Pigment Corp. v. Halox, 220 F.Supp.2d 931, 933 (E.D.Wis.2002) (citing Inamed Corp. v. Kuzmak, 249 F.3d 1356, 1359 (Fed.Cir.2001) (quoting Akro Corp. v. Luker, 45 F.3d 1541, 1543 (Fed.Cir.1995))).

Turning to the venue issue, under 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), a plaintiff may bring a patent infringement action “in the judicial district where the defendant resides.” And under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c), a corporate defendant is “deemed to reside in any judicial district in which it is subject to personal jurisdiction at the time the action is commenced.” 1 A patent infringement defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction in this district if it would be subject to the jurisdiction of the Wisconsin courts. Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(k)(1)(A); PKWare, Inc. v. Meade, 79 F.Supp.2d 1007, 1012 (E.D.Wis.2000). Thus, I may exercise personal ju risdiction over a defendant if Wisconsin’s long-arm statute permits it and if doing so would not violate federal due process. Trintec Indus., Inc. v. Pedre Promotional Prod., Inc., 395 F.3d 1275, 1279 (Fed.Cir.2005).

Wisconsin’s long-arm statute, Wis. Stat. § 801.05, allows Wisconsin courts to exercise two types of jurisdiction, specific and general. Shepherd Inv. Int'l v. Verizon Communications, 373 F.Supp.2d 853, 860 (E.D.Wis.2005). The present case involves a question of specific jurisdiction. A Wisconsin court may exercise specific jurisdiction when the litigation arises out of or is related to the defendant’s contacts with Wisconsin. Id. Section 801.05(4) authorizes jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants:

in any action claiming injury to person or property within this state arising out of an act or omission outside this state by the defendant provided in addition that at the time of the injury, either:
(b) Products, materials or things processed, serviced or manufactured by the defendant were used or consumed within this state in the ordinary course of trade.

In applying this statute, I defer to the Wisconsin courts’ interpretation of it. Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc., 148 F.3d 1355, 1358 (Fed.Cir.1998). Wisconsin courts construe § 801.05 liberally and require plaintiffs to make only a prima facie showing of jurisdiction. Kopke v. A. Hartrodt S.R.L., 245 Wis.2d 396, 409, 629 N.W.2d 662 (2001).

Plaintiff establishes the elements of personal jurisdiction required by Wis. Stat. § 801.05(4)(b). The situs of infringement of a patent is defined by federal patent law, and under such law, a patent holder is injured by infringement when and where an infringing product is sold. N. Am. Philips Corp. v. Am. Vending Sales, 35 F.3d 1576, 1579 (Fed.Cir.1994). Thus, the alleged injury occurred in this judicial dis *942 trict because defendant allegedly sold two infringing devices here. Plaintiff also alleges that the injury arose out of acts committed outside the state; namely defendant’s manufacturing, offering for sale and shipping of the devices from Indiana. Finally, plaintiff alleges that the devices were “used or consumed” in this district “in the ordinary course of trade.”

To determine whether exercising jurisdiction over defendant would comport with due process, I apply the Federal Circuit’s three-part test: whether the defendant purposefully directed its activities at residents of the forum, whether plaintiffs claim arises out of or relates to such activities, and whether the assertion of personal jurisdiction is reasonable and fair. Breckenridge Pharm., Inc. v. Metabolite Labs., Inc.,

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666 F. Supp. 2d 938, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100459, 2009 WL 3380385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/engineered-products-services-inc-v-echo-engineering-production-wied-2009.