Fastship, LLC v. United States

131 Fed. Cl. 592, 123 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1207, 2017 U.S. Claims LEXIS 453, 2017 WL 1787978
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedApril 28, 2017
Docket12-484C
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 131 Fed. Cl. 592 (Fastship, LLC v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fastship, LLC v. United States, 131 Fed. Cl. 592, 123 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1207, 2017 U.S. Claims LEXIS 453, 2017 WL 1787978 (uscfc 2017).

Opinion

Post-trial decision in a patent case; U.S. Patent Nos. 5,080,032 and 5,231,946; 28 U.S.C. § 1498(a); infringement; non-obviousness; enablement; reasonable and entire compensation

*598 OPINION AND ORDER 1

LETTOW, Judge.

This post-trial opinion addresses plaintiffs claims for damages attributable to alleged infringement of patents pertaining to large ships with a semi-planing monohull design and waterjet propulsion. Plaintiff, FastShip, LLC (“FastShip”), alleges that the United States, acting through the United States Navy (“Navy” or “government”), has infringed upon its patents, United States Patent Nos. 5,080,032 (“the ’032 patent”) and 5,231,-946 (“the ’946 patent”), both entitled “Mono-hull Fast Sealift or Semi-Planing Monohull Ship.”

The Navy instituted the Littoral Combat Ship (“LCS”) program to develop large, fast ships for combat operations in shallow waters. After years of development by the Navy and its contractors, the first ship in the Freedom class variant of the LCS program, LCS-1 (USS Freedom), was launched on September 23, 2006. LCS-1 has a semi-planing, double-chine monohull and is propelled by water-jets that are powered by gas turbines and diesel engines. FastShip alleges that LCS-1 infringes Claims 1 and 19 of the ’032 patent and Claims 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the ’946 patent, and seeks $44 million in damages for the alleged infringement. The government responds that no infringement has occurred and also contends that the ’032 and ’946 patents are invalid due to obviousness and lack of enablement. Further, the government argues that even if LCS-1 infringes the ’032 and ’946 patents, FastShip would only be entitled to a reasonable royalty of $900,000, plus delay damages.

A ten-day trial was held in Washington, D.C., commencing on October 3, 2016 and ending on October 17, 2016. Following post-trial briefing, the court heard closing arguments on February 21, 2017. The ease is now ready for disposition.

FACTS 2

A. The ’082 and ’94-6 Patents

David Giles is the inventor of the ’032 and ’946 patents. See PX 23 (the ’032 patent); PX 29 (the ’946 patent); Tr. 29:24 to 30:6 (Test, of David Giles). 3 Plaintiff is the current assignee of both patents. See PX 225 (Assignment for the Patents in Suit from Thorny-croft, Giles & Company, Inc. (“Thornycroft Giles” or “TGC”) to FastShip, LLC (July 31, 2012)); Tr. 832:8 to 833:12 (Test, of Howard Brownstein). 4

*599 Mr. Giles filed a United Kingdom patent application on October 11, 1989, setting that date as the priority date for the ’032 and ’946 patents. See ’032 patent, Foreign Application Priority Data; ’946 patent, Foreign Application Priority Data; Tr. 132:5-7 (Giles). He filed a U.S. patent application on May 18, 1990, which issued as the ’032 patent on January 14, 1992, and he filed a continuation of the application on January 13, 1992, which issued as the ’946 patent on August 3, 1993. See ’032 patent; ’946 patent; PL’s Post-Trial Br. at 6, ECF No. 155. Both patents expired on May 18, 2010. See FastShip, LLC v. United States, 122 Fed.Cl. 71, 73 (2015) (“Fast-Ship IF).

The ’032 and ’946 patents are directed to “a monohull fast sealift (MFS) or semi-planing monohull (SPMH) ship and, more particularly, to a fast ship whose hull design in combination with a waterjet propulsion system permits, for ships of about 25,000 to 30,000 tons displacement with a cargo carrying capacity of 5,000 tons, transoceanic transit speeds of up to 40 to 50 knots in high or adverse sea states.” ’032 patent, col. 1, lines 6-13; ’946 patent, col. 1, lines 10-17. 5 The patent depicted this ship design as follows:

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’032 patent at 1.

The ’032 patent consists of twenty claims and the ’946 patent consists of eight claims. Of these claims, Claims 1 and 19 of the ’032 patent and Claims 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the ’946 patent are at issue in this case. Claim 1 of the ’032 patent and Claims 1 and 3 of the ’946 patent are “vessel” claims, and Claim 19 of the ’032 patent and Claims 5 and 7 of the ’946 patent are “vessel conveying method” claims. All of the claims at issue contain common limitations and have the same specification, and thus will be considered together through a representative claim, which the parties have designated as Claim 1 of the ’032 patent. See Def.’s Post-Trial Br. at 15-16, ECF No. 165.

Claim 1 of the ’032 patent recites:

A vessel comprising:
a hull having a non-stepped profile which produces a high pressure area at the bottom of the hull in a stern section of the hull which intersects a transom to form an angle having a vertex at the intersection and hydrodynamic lifting of the stern section at a threshold speed without the hull planing across the water at a maximum velocity determined by a Froude Number, the hull having a length in excess of 200 feet, a displacement in excess of 2000 tons, a Froude Number in between about 0.42 and 0.90, and a length-to-beam ratio between about 5.0 and 7.0;
at least one inlet located within the high pressure area;
at least one waterjet coupled to the at least one inlet for discharging water which flows from the inlet to the waterjet for propelling the vessel;
*600 a power source coupled to the at least one waterjet for propelling water from the at least one inlet through the waterjet to propel the vessel and to discharge the water from an outlet of the waterjet; and wherein
acceleration of water into the at least one inlet and from the at least one waterjet produces hydrodynamic lift at the at least one inlet which is additional to the lifting produced by the bottom of the hull in the high pressure area which increases efficiency of the hull and reduces drag.

’032 patent, col. 13, line 68 to col. 14, line 29. 6

B. The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship Program

1. The Focused Mission High-Speed Ship Study.

The Navy began exploring the concept that later became the LCS program in the early 2000s, seeking new ships that could be used for- “focused missions” at high speeds. Tr. 1416:21-24, 1417:17-19 (Test, of Susan Tomaiko, Director, Undersea Systems Contracts Division, Naval Sea Systems Command). The Navy commissioned its initial study of focused mission high-speed (“FMHS”) ships in 2002. Tr. 1416:21-23 (To-maiko).

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131 Fed. Cl. 592, 123 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1207, 2017 U.S. Claims LEXIS 453, 2017 WL 1787978, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fastship-llc-v-united-states-uscfc-2017.