Signify North America Corporation v. Lepro Innovation Inc.

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided September 10, 2024·No. 2:22-cv-02095·Unknown

Opinion

1 F. Christopher Austin (SBN 6559) WEIDE & MILLER, LTD. 2 10655 Park Run Drive, Suite 100 Las Vegas, Nevada 89144 3 Telephone: (702) 382-4804 Email: caustin@weidemiller.com 4 Jeremy P. Oczek (Pro hac vice) 5 BOND, SCHOENECK & KING, PLLC 200 Delaware Avenue 6 Buffalo, New York 14202 Telephone: (716) 416-7000 7 Email: jpoczek@bsk.com 8 Jonathan L. Gray (Pro hac vice) BOND, SCHOENECK & KING, PLLC 9 One Lincoln Center Syracuse, New York 13202 10 Telephone: (315) 218-8500 Email: jlgray@bsk.com 11 Counsel for Plaintiffs 12 Signify North America Corporation and Signify Holding B.V. 13 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 15 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 16 17 SIGNIFY NORTH AMERICA Case No.: 2:22-cv-02095-JAD-EJY CORPORATION and 18 SIGNIFY HOLDING B.V. ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ UNOPPOSED 19 Plaintiffs, MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY vs. JUDGMENT ON DEFENDANTS’ 20 INVALIDITY DEFENSE AS TO U.S. LEPRO INNOVATION INC, PATENT NO. 7,014,336 21 LE INNOVATION INC, INNOVATION RULES INC., 22 HOME EVER INC., and LETIANLIGHTING, INC., ECF No. 141 23 Defendants. 24 25 26 27 1 Pursuant to Federal Rule 56 and Local Rule 56-1, Plaintiffs Signify North America 2 Corporation and Signify Holding B.V. (collectively, “Signify”) hereby move for partial summary 3 judgment on Defendants’ invalidity defense as to US.. Patent No. 7,014,336 (the ’336 Patent). 4 I. INTRODUCTION AND MEET AND CONFER CERTIFICATION 5 Defendants Lepro Innovation Inc., LE Innovation Inc., Innovation Rules Inc., Home Ever 6 Inc., and Letianlighting Inc. (collectively, “Defendants”) stand accused of infringing six of 7 Signify’s patents covering various LED technologies. In an effort to avoid liability in this case, 8 Defendants assert in their Answer that each of these patents is allegedly invalid. 9 With respect to the ’336 Patent, Defendants and their proffered expert have relied 10 exclusively on two patent references, Shimizu and Kuwabara, that do not qualify as prior art and 11 cannot be used to establish patent invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 102 as a matter of law. A reference 12 used to support an alleged claim of patent invalidity must actually predate the patent at issue. 13 ATEN Int'l Co., Ltd. v. Uniclass Tech. Co., Ltd., 932 F.3d 1364, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2019). Shimizu 14 and Kuwabara do not predate the filing of the ’336 Patent under the applicable law of 35 U.S.C. § 15 102(e) (pre-AIA). 16 When confronted with this issue in a “meet and confer” on August 7, 2024, Defendants’ 17 counsel agreed that Shimizu and Kuwabara do not qualify as prior art as to the ’336 Patent.1 Yet, 18 Defendants refused to withdraw their expert’s invalidity opinions regarding the ’336 Patent and 19 stated that Defendants were only amenable to addressing this issue through an unopposed motion 20 for summary judgment.2 While Signify believes this effort to be a waste of party and judicial 21 resources, Defendants have left Signify with no choice but to proceed with such a motion to 22 remove this issue from the case. 23 Accordingly, Plaintiffs respectfully request partial summary judgment dismissing 24 Plaintiffs’ affirmative defense of patent invalidity with respect to the ’336 Patent. 25 1 Declaration of Jeremy P. Oczek (“Oczek Decl.”) (attached hereto as Exhibit 1), ¶¶ 4-13; see, 26 Email correspondence dated Aug. 2-8, 2014, between Jeremy Oczek and Nicholas Brown (attached hereto as Exhibit 4). 27 2 Id. 1 II. CONCISE STATEMENT OF MATERIAL UNDISPUTED FACTS 2 In accordance with Local Rule 56-1, Signify submits the following concise statement 3 setting forth each fact material to the disposition of the present motion for summary judgment that 4 the Signify claims is or is not genuinely in issue, along with citations to the particular portions of 5 any pleading, affidavit, deposition, interrogatory, answer, admission, or other evidence on which 6 Signify relies. 7 A. The Present Litigation 8 1. Defendants stand accused in this action of infringing six Signify patents, including 9 the ’336 Patent.3 10 2. Defendants filed an Answer in this case alleging broadly, without any substance or 11 facts, that the ’336 Patent is invalid.4 12 3. Defendants bear the burden of proof on their affirmative defense of invalidity of 13 the ’336 Patent by clear and convincing evidence.5 14 B. The ’336 Patent 15 4. The ’336 Patent, titled “Methods and Apparatus for Providing Power to Lighting 16 Devices,” was filed on November 20, 2000.6 17 5. The ’336 Patent is presumed valid.7 18 C. Defendants’ Invalidity Defense as to the ’336 Patent 19 6. On May 19, 2023, Defendants served their invalidity contentions pursuant to Local 20 Patent Rule 1-8 alleging that the ’336 Patent was invalid as anticipated or obvious in view of U.S. 21 Patent No. 6,577,073 (“Shimizu”) and U.S. Patent No. 6,508,564 (“Kuwabara”). Defendants did 22 23 3 See ECF 1, Complaint for Patent Infringement, Count One, at ¶¶ 43-56. 4 See ECF 26, Defendants’ Answer to Plaintiffs’ Complaint, Third Affirmative Defense, at pg. 21. 24 5 See Transclean Corp. v. Bridgewood Services, Inc., 290 F.3d 1364, 1370 (Fed. Cir. 2002). 25 6 See ECF 1-1, ’336 Patent. 7 “A patent shall be presumed valid. Each claim of a patent (whether in independent, dependent, 26 or multiple dependent form) shall be presumed valid independently of the validity of other claims; dependent or multiple dependent claims shall be presumed valid even though dependent upon an 27 invalid claim.” 35 U.S.C. § 282. 1 not chart any other references in their invalidity contentions for the ’336 Patent as required by 2 Local Patent Rule 1-8.8 3 7. The only other ground of invalidity raised by Defendants in their invalidity 4 contentions was alleged indefiniteness of claims 132 and 186 under 35 U.S.C. 112, but this ground 5 was rejected by the Court’s Claim Construction Order issued on December 4, 2023.9 6 8. On June 5, 2023, Signify served responses to Defendants’ invalidity contentions 7 pursuant to Local Patent Rule 1-8 in which Signify expressly informed Defendants that Shimizu 8 and Kuwabara were not entitled to their foreign priority dates. Accordingly, Defendants have been 9 on notice for over a year that Shimizu and Kuwabara do not qualify as prior art to the ’336 Patent.10 10 9. Shimizu stems from an application that was filed in the United States on May 25, 11 2001, 11 after the November 20, 2000, filing date of the ’336 Patent. 12 10. Kuwabara stems from an application that was filed in the United States on 13 November 22, 2001, 12 after the November 20, 2000, filing date of the ’336 Patent. 14 11. On July 22, 2024, Defendants served an expert report of John W. Curran, Ph.D. 15 regarding alleging that the ’336 Patent was invalid as anticipated or obvious in view Shimizu and 16 Kuwabara. 13 17 12. Defendants’ invalidity defense and Dr. Curran’s invalidity opinion as to the ’336 18 Patent rely exclusively on the availability of Shimizu or Kuwabara as prior art.14 19 13. In the parties’ meet and confer on August 7, 2024, Defendants’ counsel agreed that 20 Shimizu and Kuwabara do not qualify as prior art to the ’336 Patent and, thus, cannot be used to 21 establish invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 102 as a matter of law.15 22 8 See Exhibit 1, Oczek Decl., at ¶ 4. 23 9 See ECF 91, Claim Construction Order, at 3-6.

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Signify North America Corporation v. Lepro Innovation Inc., (D. Nev. 2024).

Signify North America Corporation v. Lepro Innovation Inc. (Signify North America Corporation v. Lepro Innovation Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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