Pediatric Medical Devices, Inc. v. Indiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc.

961 F. Supp. 2d 1241, 2013 WL 4400392, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116035
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedAugust 16, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 1:11-cv-2613-TCB
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 961 F. Supp. 2d 1241 (Pediatric Medical Devices, Inc. v. Indiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pediatric Medical Devices, Inc. v. Indiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc., 961 F. Supp. 2d 1241, 2013 WL 4400392, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116035 (N.D. Ga. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

TIMOTHY C. BATTEN, SR., District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the May 24, 2013 motion [49] of Plaintiff Pediatric Medical Devices, Inc. (PMD) for partial reconsideration of the Court’s April 26, 2013 claim-construction order [47], 2013 WL 2395994, which construed ten disputed claim terms of the patent-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 7,281,285 (“the '285 patent”). PMD challenges the Court’s construction of the term “said pediatric emergency transport device being operatively adapted for attachment to and detachment from a conventional stretcher” to mean “said pediatric emergency transport device designed and configured to attach to and detach from a conventional stretcher without the use of straps or belts.” PMD argues that reconsideration is warranted because it did not have notice of the construction and that the construction is a clear error and would result in manifest injustice. According to PMD, the Court should delete the limitation that the device attach to and detach from the stretcher “without the use of straps or belts,” or alternatively, modify the construction to clarify that “straps or belts” refers to only stretcher straps and not straps or belts that are affixed to the device.

I. Background

On August 8, 2011, PMD filed this patent-infringement action, claiming that the “SafeGuard Transport” device manufactured by Defendant Indiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc. (“IMMI”) infringes the '285 patent, which PMD owns and which is directed to a device for the emergency [1243]*1243transport of pediatric patients that attaches to a conventional stretcher.

On April 4, 2012, pursuant to this Court’s Local Patent Rules, the parties filed a joint claim-construction statement, identifying ten disputed terms.

On February 13, 2013, the Court held a Markman hearing at which the parties provided argument and evidence in support of their positions. At the hearing, the Court announced its constructions for eight of the ten disputed terms.

On April 26, the Court issued its claim-construction order, setting forth its reasoning for the constructions announced at the hearing as well as its analysis and construction of the two remaining disputed terms.

One of those remaining terms was the term at issue in the present motion: “said pediatric emergency transport device being operatively adapted for attachment to and detachment from a conventional stretcher.” In the April 26 order, the Court explained that it had carefully reviewed the parties’ arguments, the specification, and the prosecution history to reach its construction. Specifically, the Court found that considering the patentee’s disavowals of straps and belts, the claim’s requirement that the device be “operatively adapted for” attaching to and detaching from a stretcher, and the descriptions in the specification providing that the transport device engages with a stretcher as part of its design and operation, the term should be construed to mean “said pediatric emergency transport device designed and configured to attach to and detach from a conventional stretcher without the use of straps or belts.”

II. Discussion

A. Legal Stándard

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not specifically authorize motions for reconsideration. Local Rule 7.2 provides that motions for reconsideration are not to be filed “as a matter of routine practice,” but only when “absolutely necessary.” LR 7.2E, NDGa. A party may move for reconsideration only when at least one of the following three elements exists: (1) the discovery of new evidence; (2) an intervening development or change in the controlling law; or (3) the need to correct a clear error or manifest injustice. Preserve Endangered Areas of Cobb’s History, Inc. v. United States Army Corps of Eng’rs, 916 F.Supp. 1557, 1560 (N.D.Ga. 1995).

Because reconsideration may occur only under those limited circumstances, a motion for reconsideration “is not an opportunity for the moving party ... to instruct the court on how the court ‘could have done it better’ the first time.” Id. In other words, a party “may not employ a motion for reconsideration as a vehicle to present new arguments or evidence that should have been raised earlier, introduce novel legal theories, or repackage familiar arguments to test whether the Court will change its mind.” Brogdon ex rel. Cline v. Nat’l Healthcare Corp., 103 F.Supp.2d 1322, 1338 (N.D.Ga.2000); see also Godby v. Electrolux Corp., Nos. l:93-cv-0353ODE, 1:93-cv-126-ODE, 1994 WL 470220, at *1 (N.D.Ga. May 25, 1994) (“A motion for reconsideration should not be used to reiterate arguments that have previously been made.... [It is an improper use of] the motion to reconsider to ask the Court to rethink what the Court has already thought through — rightly or wrongly.”) (citations omitted); In re Hollowell, 242 B.R. 541, 542-3 (Bankr.N.D.Ga.1999) (“Mo tions for reconsideration should not be used to relitigate issues already decided or as a substitute for appeal. Such motions also should not be used to raise arguments [1244]*1244which were or could have been raised before judgment was issued.”) (citation omitted).

B. Analysis

1. Reconsideration Is Not Warranted

PMD argues that the Court should reconsider its construction for two reasons. First, it contends that it had no prehearing notice that the Court might construe the disputed term to mean “without the use of straps or belts”; PMD points out the construction adopted by the Court was not proposed by IMMI and the Court did not specifically notify the parties before the Markman hearing that it was considering construing the term to exclude straps and belts. According to PMD, it should be permitted to present evidence and argument in opposition to the Court’s construction. Second, PMD argues that because the Court’s construction is clearly erroneous in light of the arguments and evidence set forth in its motion, manifest injustice will result because its current and future infringement claims “will be weakened without a proper basis in law or fact.” It is true that neither party proffered the exact construction that the Court ultimately adopted. In the parties’ joint claim-construction statement, PMD argued that the term should be construed as “said pediatric emergency transport device releasably coupling to a conventional stretcher,” and IMMI contended that the term is a means-plus-function claim pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, with the corresponding structure being a spring-loaded clamp mechanism that clamps to the rail of a stretcher, or alternatively, that the claim is invalid for omitting essential structure.1 But even though the “without straps or belts” limitation was not part of IMMI’s proposed construction, the Court does not agree that PMD had no notice of a potential construction that would exclude straps and belts as a method for attaching the device to a stretcher.

First, IMMI argued in its brief in response to PMD’s claim-construction brief that the claim term should exclude belts.

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Bluebook (online)
961 F. Supp. 2d 1241, 2013 WL 4400392, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116035, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pediatric-medical-devices-inc-v-indiana-mills-manufacturing-inc-gand-2013.