Rembrandt Vision Technologies, L.P. v. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.

282 F.R.D. 655, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76883, 2012 WL 1988715
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedJune 4, 2012
DocketNo. 3:11-cv-819-J-32JRK
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 282 F.R.D. 655 (Rembrandt Vision Technologies, L.P. v. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rembrandt Vision Technologies, L.P. v. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., 282 F.R.D. 655, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76883, 2012 WL 1988715 (M.D. Fla. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER

TIMOTHY J. CORRIGAN, District Judge.

During the trial of this patent case, plaintiffs expert, Dr. Thomas Beebe, testified for the first time on cross-examination that he had followed an undocumented protocol for his Shore D testing that is entirely inconsistent with the procedures disclosed in his expert report. This caused defendant Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. (“JJVC”) to make an ore terms motion to exclude Dr. Beebe’s testimony regarding his Shore D testing and for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50(a). The parties submitted briefing on this issue (Does. 265, 266, 274), and oral argument was held on May 4, 2012, May 11, 2012, and May 14, 2012, the transcripts of which are incorporated by reference (Tr. Trans. Vol. VI at 39-93; Tr. Trans. Vol. X at 5-108; Tr. Trans. Vol. XI at 16-56). On May 14, 2012, the Court ruled on the record that it would grant JJVC’s motion to strike Dr. Beebe’s Shore D testimony and for judgment as a matter of law under Rule 50(a). (Tr. Trans. Vol. XI at 51.) This Order constitutes the Court’s reasoning for that ruling, as well as its ruling on the issue of willful infringement.1

1. BACKGROUND

Rembrandt alleges that JJVC’s Acuvue Advance and Acuvue Oasys contact lenses infringe United States Patent Number 5,712,327 (the “'327 patent”). The '327 patent claims a “soft gas permeable contact lens” containing certain properties. At the joint request of the parties, the Court construed the term “soft gas permeable contact lens” to mean “a contact lens having a Hardness (Shore D) of less than five.” (Doc. 69 at 2. )

Rembrandt retained Dr. Thomas Beebe to determine the Shore D hardness of the accused products. In his expert report, Dr. Beebe stated that he used the following standard operating procedures:

1. A Shore-D durometer ... was used for all hardness testing....
2. The sample must be thick enough to allow full penetration of the probe through the material to be tested. The probe is 0.100 inch (2.54 mm) in length.
3. When the sample is thinner than this (as is the ease with contact lenses), individual pieces of the sample must be stacked on top of each other in order to provide the required sample thickness.
4. The lenses were removed from their packaging and carefully stacked on a stainless steel ball having a curvature that matched the curvature of the lenses____ Stack 24 individual lens samples on each other, keeping the material hydrated in its original packaging fluid.
5. Locate the durometer probe at the location on the sample to be tested and slowly press the probe into the sample stack. Stop advancing when the durome-ter bottoms out.
[658]*6586. The durometer was pressed into the test stack of lenses in sets of 10 replicates, each at a different location____
7. Lenses were discarded after testing. All lens boxes with lot information were retained in a lab notebook.

(Doc. 265, ex. 2 at 46-47.)

Pretrial, JJVC moved to exclude Dr. Beebe’s testimony under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 592-93, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), and for summary judgment on the grounds that no reasonable juror could conclude that the accused products are “soft” based on Dr. Beebe’s testing. (Does. 148, 152 at 27-34.) JJVC primarily argued that Dr. Beebe should have tested a dehydrated button of material rather than hydrated contact lenses. JJVC also argued that Dr. Beebe’s testing procedures did not conform to the governing scientific standards. The Court denied the motion for summary judgment; at the joint request of the parties, the Court deferred ruling on the Daubert motion until after Dr. Beebe testified at trial. (Does. 237, 255.)

At trial, Dr. Beebe testified on direct examination that he performed his Shore D testing consistent with the procedures listed in his expert report. Specifically, Dr. Beebe stated that, when he conducted his testing, “other than the fact that [the lenses] were stacked up, they were as they come out of the ease.” (Tr. Trans. Vol. Ill at 56.) He also testified that his testing was consistent with the testing he performed during the reexamination of the '327 patent and in prior litigation, (id.) and such testing was similar to that disclosed in his expert report.

On cross-examination, Dr. Beebe had difficulty articulating how he designed his Shore D test. He conceded that he had only performed Shore D testing in the context of litigation for Rembrandt and that he was not an expert on Shore D testing. (Tr. Trans. Vol. Ill at 231-32.)2 Dr. Beebe also stated that he “didn’t really refer to the patent in deciding how to do [his] testing” and that he had not attempted to determine how the inventor had conducted Shore D testing. (Id. at 232-33.) He further stated that, when he designed his test, he had not reviewed the patent office file history. (Id. at 236.) While Dr. Beebe asserted that he had looked at scientific standards for measurements, he stated: “I can’t recall whether I looked at the ASTM or the ANSI [standards]. The acronyms are similar. I looked at one of the standards.” (Tr. Trans. Vol. Ill at 237) (emphasis added).

JJVC then asked a series of questions designed to show that Dr. Beebe’s procedures, as disclosed in his expert report, did not conform to the governing scientific standards. At first, Dr. Beebe attempted to defend his written procedures; however, he had difficulty explaining how they met the standards. For example, when asked why he chose to test a stack of contact lenses rather than a button or blank of contact lens material, Dr. Beebe gave an implausible reading of the standards, opining that perhaps a “comma” was missing from the standards, which would alter their meaning. (Id. at 240.) JJVC next inquired into whether Dr. Beebe tested a sample of the appropriate thickness:

Q. You testified something was 6 millimeters thick?
A. Yes.
Q. What was that?
A. That was the stacked-up lenses that were stacked up in order to achieve a minimum thickness of 6 millimeters.
Q. Whoa. I thought you said in your report that you stacked 24 lenses.
A. Okay.
Q. Is that true? Here’s your expert re-port____ The sample must be thick enough to allow full penetration of the [659]*659probe, and that’s 2.54 millimeters, right?
A. Yes. And I believe that’s a mistake, actually. I think that—I think the actual—that might be a typo. The correct value is one—one-quarter of an inch ...
Q. How on earth do 24 lenses add up to 6 millimeters? ... Oasys [has a] center thickness [of] .07.
Q. And my math tells me that 24 times .07 is 1.68 millimeters. Does that sound about right?
A. That math sounds right, yes.
Q. Okay. So you had 24 lenses, and they didn’t come close to 6 millimeters, did they?

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282 F.R.D. 655, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76883, 2012 WL 1988715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rembrandt-vision-technologies-lp-v-johnson-johnson-vision-care-inc-flmd-2012.