LG Electronics, Inc. v. Advance Creative Computer Corp.

212 F. Supp. 2d 1171, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14652, 2002 WL 1769941
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJuly 25, 2002
DocketC 01-101070 CW
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 212 F. Supp. 2d 1171 (LG Electronics, Inc. v. Advance Creative Computer Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LG Electronics, Inc. v. Advance Creative Computer Corp., 212 F. Supp. 2d 1171, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14652, 2002 WL 1769941 (N.D. Cal. 2002).

Opinion

ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT

WILKEN, District Judge.

In its first amended complaint, Plaintiff LG Electronics, Inc. (LGE) alleged that Defendant Advance Creative Computer Corp. (ACC) and its wholly owned subsidiary DTK Computer, Inc. (DTK) infringed six of Plaintiffs’ patents. Default was entered against ACC on October 11, 2001 and against DTK on November 13, 2001. Plaintiff filed a motion for default judgment on December 17, 2001. That motion was referred to a magistrate judge for a report and recommendation.

On April 12, 2002, the magistrate judge filed a Report and Recommendation on Plaintiffs Motion for Default Judgment (Report). The Report recommended enjoining Defendants from future infringement of Plaintiffs patents, but did not identify specific ACC and DTK products in the recommended injunction. In addition, the magistrate judge held that Plaintiff had not provided sufficient evidence to justify its request for $12,060,000 in damages. On April 26, 2002 Plaintiff objected to the Report and moved for an award of damages against defaulting Defendants and to *1173 enjoin Defendants from infringing specific products.

LGE’s objection to the Report and Recommendation — with respect to both the damage calculation and the scope of the recommended injunction — is based on its contention that the magistrate judge erred in refusing to credit Defendants’ failure to respond to LGE’s requests for admissions. For the reasons stated in the Report, that objection is overruled (Docket # 107). The Court adopts Magistrate Judge La-porte’s Report and Recommendation (Docket # 58) and enters default judgment accordingly. 1

This Court having previously entered default against Defendant Advance Creative Computer Corp. (ACC) for failure to answer the First Amended Complaint duly served upon ACC by Plaintiff LG Electronics, Inc. (LGE), and against Defendant DTK Computer, Inc. (DTK) for failure to obey a pretrial scheduling order, failure to appear at a scheduling conference, failure to participate in a scheduling conference in good faith, and/or failure to otherwise defend this action and LGE having applied to this Court for the entry of default judgment,

IT IS ORDERED that:

1. ACC and DTK have infringed United States Patent Nos. 4,918,645; 4,926,419; 4,939,641; 5,077,733; 5,379,379; 5,892,509.

2. ACC and DTK, their officers, agents, servants, employees and those persons in active concert or participation with them, during the period commencing upon the date of entry of this default judgment and for the remainders of the respective terms of each of the patents-in-suit, are hereby enjoined and restrained from making, using, offering for sale, or selling in or importing into the United States any computer system that infringes the patents-in-suit, or contributing to such infringement or inducing others to do so.

3.LGE has not established that it is entitled to any damages from ACC or DTK for infringement of the patents in suit.

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT

LAPORTE, United States Magistrate Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Upon consideration of the parties’ oral arguments and their submissions, good cause appearing, and for the reasons set forth below, the following is the Court’s Report and Recommendation to the Honorable Claudia Wilken on a motion for default judgment filed by plaintiff LG Electronics Incorporated (“LGE”) against defendants Advanced Creative Computer Corporation (“ACC”) and DTK Computer Incorporated (“DTK”).

FACTS

LGE’s First Amended Complaint alleges that ACC and DTK are infringing six different patents owned by LGE:

1. United States Patent No. 4,918,645, entitled “Computer Bus Having Page Mode Memory Access.”

2. United States Patent No, 4,926,419, entitled “Priority Apparatus.”

3. United States Patent No. 4,939,641, entitled “Multi-Processor System with Cache Memories.”

4. United States Patent No. 5,077,733, entitled “Priority Apparatus Having Programmable Node Dwell Time.”

*1174 5. United States Patent No. 5,379,379, entitled “Memory Control Unit With Selective Execution Of Queued Read And Write Requests.”

6. United States Patent No. 5,892,509, entitled “Image Processing Apparatus Having Common And Personal Memory And Capable Of Viewing And Editing An Image Commonly With A Remote Image Processing Apparatus Over A Network.”

LGE alleges that ACC and DTK are infringing these patents by making, selling, offering to sell, using, or importing into the United States computer systems embodying the claimed inventions of these patents, or by contributing thereto or inducing others to do so.

LGE’s complaint prays for the following relief:

1. A judgment that ACC and DTK each infringed each of the patents, and that the infringement was willful;

2. An injunction permanently enjoining ACC and DTK from infringing the patents;

3. Damages, including treble damages for willful infringement, plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest; and

4. A finding that this is an exceptional case and an order awarding reasonable attorneys’ fees to LGE.

ACC never responded to LGE’s First Amended Complaint, and default was entered against ACC on October 11, 2001.

DTK filed both an Answer and Counterclaim as well as a Motion to Transfer. However, once the case was transferred to this Court from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, DTK stopped participating in the action. On October 18, 2001, Judge Wilken issued an order to show cause why default should not be entered against DTK. DTK did not respond to the order to show cause, and on November 13, 2001, the Court ordered entry of default against DTK.

On November 15, the Court ordered LGE to file a motion for default judgment within 30 days, and ordered that the motion be referred to a magistrate judge for a report and recommendation. The matter was referred to this Court on November 20.

On December 17, 2001, LGE filed its motion for default judgment against ACC and DTK, and noticed the motion for hearing on January 29, 2002. That hearing was later continued to February 26, 2002. In LGE’s motion for default judgment, it requested only injunctive relief, and sought to defer the calculation of damages until a later date.

At the hearing on February 26, the Court advised LGE that it could not recommend entry of a judgment imposing an injunction, but purporting to reserve the issue of an award of damages for a later date. LGE then requested a hearing on the amount of damages to be awarded as part of the default judgment after it had completed some additional discovery. The Court continued the hearing until March 29, 2002, and ordered the parties to file supplemental briefing on damages.

On March 22, 2002, LGE filed its supplemental briefing.

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212 F. Supp. 2d 1171, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14652, 2002 WL 1769941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lg-electronics-inc-v-advance-creative-computer-corp-cand-2002.