Lawler Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Bradley Corp.

363 F. App'x 39
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedJanuary 27, 2010
Docket2009-1390
StatusUnpublished

This text of 363 F. App'x 39 (Lawler Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Bradley Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lawler Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Bradley Corp., 363 F. App'x 39 (Fed. Cir. 2010).

Opinions

DECISION

SCHALL, Circuit Judge.

Lawler Manufacturing Co., Inc. (“Lawler”) appeals the order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Lawler Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Bradley Corp., No. 1:98-CV-l660-LJM-JMS, 2009 WL 1159577 (S.D. Ind. April 29, 2009) (“Order ”). In the Order, the district court denied Lawler’s motion for an order terminating the license agreement between Lawler and Bradley Corporation (“Bradley”). We affirm.

DISCUSSION

I.

Lawler sued Bradley in the Southern District of Indiana for patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Eventually, the parties settled the suit. As part of the settlement, Lawler and Bradley entered into a license agreement. The license agreement granted Bradley the right to manufacture and sell valves covered by Lawler’s patents in exchange for royalty payments. Several provisions of the license agreement are pertinent to the present dispute.

Under Section 2.4 of the agreement, Bradley was required to mark licensed products with the patent numbers of applicable Lawler patents. Section 5.3 of the agreement gave Lawler the right to appoint an independent certified public accounting firm to investigate and analyze Bradley’s records and those of its affiliates to determine whether Bradley was accurately and correctly reporting the amount of royalties due under the agreement. Section 5.3 also provided that if the accounting firm’s investigation revealed an underpayment in excess of $ 5,000, Bradley would be liable for the costs of the investigation. Section 5.4 of the agreement provided that if the accounting firm’s investigation found an underpayment of royalties by Bradley and/or an affiliate, Bradley was required, within thirty days, to pay Lawler the additional royalties found to be due, plus interest. Finally, Section 8.1 of the agreement provided for termination of the agreement upon a party’s default. It read as follows:

Any one or more of the following events shall constitute an event of default under this License Agreement: (i) the failure of Bradley or an Affiliate to pay any Royalties when due hereunder and the expiration of fifteen (15) days after receipt of a written notice from Lawler requesting the payment of such Royalties; and (ii) the failure of a party to perform any other obligation required to be performed hereunder, and the failure to cure within sixty (60) days after receipt of notice from the other party specifying in sufficient detail the nature of such default. Upon the occurrence of any event of default, the non-defaulting party may deliver to the defaulting party written notice of intent to terminate, such termination to be effective thirty (30) days after the date set forth in such notice.

A203.

II.

On December 22, 2003, Lawler sent Bradley a letter stating that, based upon [41]*41the investigation report of the accounting firm KPMG, Lawler had concluded that Bradley had underpaid royalties for the years 2001 and 2002. Bradley wrote: “Under Section 5.4 of the License Agreement, Lawler demands that Bradley pay within thirty (30) days additional royalties of $ 22,018.41 plus interest in the amount of $ 5,911.87 for a total of $ 27,930.28.” In addition, citing section 5.3 of the agreement, Lawler wrote that Bradley was required to reimburse it for the costs of KPMG’s investigation. Lawler’s letter further stated that the KPMG investigation had revealed that “Bradley continues not to mark its valves with all pertinent Lawler patent numbers.” The letter referred to this alleged conduct of Bradley as “a serious breach of the License Agreement.” The letter concluded with the following sentence: “All of these matters need to be addressed and resolved or Lawler will have no choice but to resort to the default and termination provisions of the License Agreement.”

By letter of counsel dated January 15, 2004, Bradley responded that it had not underpaid royalties, and it requested further information from Lawler concerning its claim that Bradley had failed to mark its products with the numbers of Lawler’s patents. This letter was followed by further correspondence between Lawler and Bradley, culminating in an exchange of letters in the latter part of June 2004. On June 21, 2004, Lawler sent Bradley the following two-sentence letter: “Enclosed is the detail you requested supporting KPMG’s bill. Lawler’s demand made in its December 22, 2003 letter stands.” Bradley responded on June 29, 2004. Bradley’s letter stated that, as it had explained it its previous letters, it had not underpaid royalties and was not required to reimburse Lawler for the costs of the KPMG audit for calendar years 2001 and 2002. On September 9, 2004, Lawler sent Bradley a letter stating that Bradley’s August 16, 2004 refusal to allow Lawler’s auditor to review royalties payable for 2003 constituted “an event of default under the License Agreement.”

On August 26, 2005, Lawler sent Bradley a letter stating that, on July 22, 2005, Lawler had provided Bradley with specific marking instructions and that subsequently, on August 17, 2005, Bradley had informed Lawler that it would not comply with those instructions. Lawler concluded its letter with the following statement: “Please be advised that Bradley’s refusal to mark ..., despite Lawler’s specific instructions, constitutes an event of default pursuant to Section 2.4 of the ... License Agreement.”

Four months later, on December 20, 2005, Lawler sent Bradley a letter with the following caption:

Re: Bradley’s Continued Failure To Follow Lawler’s Patent Marking Instructions; Termination of License Agreement

In the December 20 letter, Lawler recited what it characterized as Bradley’s election “not to engage in the required patent marking or to correct its prior patent marking deficiencies in a manner that complies with the License Agreement.” After doing so, Lawler informed Bradley that is was terminating the license agreement:

Given Bradley’s continued default under the License Agreement, Lawler hereby notifies Bradley that, pursuant to Paragraph 8.1 of the License Agreement, the License Agreement is hereby terminated by Lawler. This termination will be effective thirty days from the date of this letter, on January 19, 2006. Pursuant to Paragraph 8.2, this termination will not relieve Bradley of its responsibility for breaches of the royalty pay[42]*42ment and other provisions of the License Agreement.

A208-09.

III.

On July 15, 2008, Lawler moved in the district court for an order enforcing termination of the license agreement and determining royalties and damages owed to Lawler by Bradley. This motion came on the heels of the decision by this court that reversed and remanded the June 22, 2007, 2007 WL 5674590, order of the district court denying Lawler’s earlier February 8, 2006 motion to terminate the agreement. See Lawler Mfg. Co., Inc. v. Bradley Corp., 280 Fed.Appx. 951, 956 (Fed.Cir.2008) (noting there was “insufficient evidence before this court to determine whether Lawler properly notified Bradley of its failure to pay any royalties or of its intent to terminate the license agreement.”).

As noted above, the district court denied Lawler’s motion on April 29, 2009. Order.

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Related

Lawler Manufacturing Co. v. Bradley Corp.
280 F. App'x 951 (Federal Circuit, 2008)

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363 F. App'x 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawler-manufacturing-co-inc-v-bradley-corp-cafc-2010.