Lyons v. Nike, Inc.

920 F. Supp. 2d 1161, 2013 WL 360075, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12593
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedJanuary 30, 2013
DocketCiv. No. 3:09-cv-1183-AC
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 920 F. Supp. 2d 1161 (Lyons v. Nike, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lyons v. Nike, Inc., 920 F. Supp. 2d 1161, 2013 WL 360075, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12593 (D. Or. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

ACOSTA, United States Magistrate Judge.

Introduction

Plaintiff Levert Lyons (“Lyons”) sued defendant Nike, Inc. (“Nike”) for infringement of United States Patent No. 5,513,-448 (“the '448 Patent”), issued to Lyons by the United States Patent & Trademark Office in 1996. Nike responded with counterclaims seeking declaratory judgments that the '448 Patent was invalid and that Nike had not infringed the '448 Patent. In a June 7, 2012, order, the court granted [1163]*1163Nike’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of noninfringement and denied its motion for summary judgment on the issue of invalidity. The court also denied as moot Lyons’s motion for partial summary judgment that Nike willfully infringed the '448 Patent. Following the disposition on summary judgment, only Nike’s counterclaim seeking a declaration of invalidity remains unresolved.

Nike moves for an order from this court dismissing its invalidity counterclaim without prejudice, and for an award of costs as the prevailing party under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 54(d)(1). Lyons opposes this motion, instead seeking dismissal of the counterclaim with prejudice and a denial of Nike’s request for costs. Lyons moves for reconsideration of the court’s June 7, 2012, order pursuant to Rule 54(b).

I.Motion for Reconsideration

Lyons seeks reconsideration of the court’s summary judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b). The rule provides:

[A]ny order or other decision, however designated, that adjudicates fewer than all the claims or the rights and liabilities of fewer than all the parties does not end the action as to any of the claims or parties and may be revised at any time before the entry of a judgment adjudicating all the claims and all the parties’ rights and liabilities.

Fed.R.CivP. 54(b) (2012). As such, Lyons asks the court to “revise” its interlocutory order consistent with the errors he alleges the court committed in its analysis.

The standard for reconsideration under this rule has not been authoritatively established, but as this court has done previously, it will adopt the standard set forth in Motorola Inc. v. J.B. Rodgers Mechanical Contractors, 215 F.R.D. 581, 583-86 (D.Az.2003). See Stockamp & Assocs. v. Accretive Health, CV 04-1443-BR, 2005 WL 425456, at *6, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43061, at *17-18 (D.Or. Feb. 18, 2005) (“In [Motorola], the court reviewed the local rules of those districts in the Ninth Circuit that had addressed the issue of reconsideration of interlocutory orders, and the court concluded the rules of the Central District of California ‘capture the most common elements of the various local rules.’ This Court agrees and, like the court in Motorola, adopts the standards set forth in the local rules of the Central District of California for determining whether to grant a motion for reconsideration.” (internal citations omitted)).

The court must, therefore, consider whether:

1. There are material differences in fact or law from that presented to the Court and, at the time of the Court’s decision, the party moving for reconsideration could not have known of the factual or legal differences through reasonable diligence;
2. There are new material facts that happened after the Court’s decision;
3. There has been a change in the law that was decided or enacted after the Court’s decision; or
4. The movant makes a convincing showing that the Court failed to consider material facts that were presented to the Court before the Court’s decision.

Motorola, 215 F.R.D. at 586. Such motions are generally “disfavored.” American Rivers v. NOAA Fisheries, No. CV-04-00061-RE, 2006 WL 1983178, at *2, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48195, at *6 (D.Or. July 14, 2006).

Lyons does not present differences in fact or law of which he was not apprised in the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time of the court’s decision. Lyons does not contend that new material facts have arisen since the decision, or that there has [1164]*1164been a change in the applicable law. Thus, Lyons must make a “convincing showing” that the court “failed to consider material facts” before it at the time of its decision. Id. Lyons has failed to do so.

Lyons argues that, with respect to the following claim language, the court erred in its analysis and disregarded evidence that created genuine issues of material fact: fastener assembly; positive interlock; flexing to disengage; removable by; and removable insole. Lyons’s arguments are chiefly those advanced at summary judgment, which arguments the court analyzed and rejected. Lyons offers no reasons sufficient under the applicable standard to compel reconsideration of the court’s prior rulings on these issues. Thus, the court declines to revisit them.

Lyons argues, further, that the court failed to afford the testimony of Dr. Priddy and Lyons himself the favorable inferences a nonmovant is entitled to at summary judgment. The court, applying the standard set forth by the Federal Circuit, evaluated whether the expert testimony of Dr. Priddy and the testimony of Lyons himself had a sufficient factual foundation upon which to premise a genuine issue of material fact. The court determined that Dr. Priddy’s conclusions, based exclusively on his experience with materials and common sense rather than testing or actual observation, was not supported by the requisite factual foundation and was merely speculative. For this reason, his testimony was insufficient to raise a genuine issue of material fact. Regarding the testimony of Lyons himself, the court concluded that Lyons was not an expert and so Lyons’s observations, the observations of “the patentee, carry weight only to the extent that they are consistent with observable properties of the accused devices.” (Opinion and Order (# 136) at 10.) The court concluded that Lyons’s testimony was inconsistent with the balance of the record evidence and, thus, gave it diminished weight.

In sum, Lyons has not met the standard for reconsideration under Rule 54(b) and the court denies the motion.

II. Dismissal of Invalidity Counterclaim

The parties dispute whether the remaining counterclaim of invalidity should be dismissed with or without prejudice. It is well established that “[a] district court judge faced with an invalidity counterclaim challenging a patent that it concludes was not infringed may either hear the claim or dismiss it without prejudice, subject to review only for abuse of discretion.” Liquid Dynamics Corp. v. Vaughan Co., Inc., 355 F.3d 1361 (Fed.Cir.2004) (citing Nystrom v. TREX Co., 339 F.3d 1347, 1351 (Fed.Cir.2003)).

Nike argues that where a patent is found not to be infringed, the court may decline to hear the invalidity counterclaim on the merits and dismiss it without prejudice.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
920 F. Supp. 2d 1161, 2013 WL 360075, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12593, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyons-v-nike-inc-ord-2013.