Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support v. Siemens Industry, Inc.

63 F. Supp. 3d 558, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165747, 2014 WL 6679107
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. North Carolina
DecidedNovember 25, 2014
DocketNo. 5:11-CV-00296-FL
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 63 F. Supp. 3d 558 (Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support v. Siemens Industry, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies Support v. Siemens Industry, Inc., 63 F. Supp. 3d 558, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165747, 2014 WL 6679107 (E.D.N.C. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

LOUISE W. FLANAGAN, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on two sets of motions taken under advisement, in part, at hearing held October 1, 2014: (1) plaintiffs motion to compel production of documents withheld as privileged (DE 274); and (2) plaintiffs motion to strike defendant’s amended invalidity contentions (DE 297) and defendants’ related motion to amend invalidity contentions (DE 320). Defendants submitted for in camera review representative documents related to the motion to compel. The parties filed additional briefing post-hearing related to the motion to strike and motion to amend invalidity contentions. In this posture, the issues raised are ripe for ruling.

[561]*561BACKGROUND

Plaintiff filed suit in June 2011 alleging patent infringement by defendant Siemens Industry, Inc. (“Siemens”). Plaintiff seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to prevent continuing alleged infringement. Plaintiff claims that defendant Siemens markets a wastewater treatment filter (the Forty-X disc filter) that infringes two patents owned by plaintiff (the '805 Patent and the '508 Patent). In December 2011, defendant Siemens filed answer and counterclaims, including assertions that plaintiffs patents are invalid. Defendant Siemens filed an amended answer and counterclaims on May 18, 2012. The court dismissed and struck certain affirmative defenses and counterclaims on August 22, 2012.

The parties filed their initial joint claim construction statement on July 20, 2012 (DE 57), and an initial round of briefs on claim construction concluding December 31, 2012 (DE 119, 120, 135, 139). Subsequently, by order entered May 16, 2013, 2013 WL 2149209, the court allowed defendant Siemens to proceed with certain amended non-infringement and invalidity contentions, but not others, which led to filing of another joint claim construction statement (DE 196) and round of supplemental briefing concluding August 22, 2013. (DE 197-200).

The court held claim construction hearing on January 22 and 23, 2014. Evoqua Water Technologies LLC (“Evoqua”) was added as a second defendant in this matter on January 22, 2014, based on a business transfer involving defendant Siemens. With no objection, the court granted the motion to add Evoqua as a defendant, and Evoqua filed an answer on February 12, 2014, which is in material part the same as the answer of Siemens, and which responds to the allegations of the complaint as if directed at Evoqua. The court entered its claim construction order May 5, 2014.

In its claim construction order, the court directed the parties to provide the court with a joint statement regarding scheduling of remaining case activities and deadlines, - including whether the parties seek any departure from the deadlines set forth in the court’s prior case management orders and in the local patent rules. On June 16, 2014, the court adopted the schedule proposed by the parties, including a July 9, 2014, deadline for filing final non-infringement and invalidity contentions; an October 17, 2014, deadline for close of fact discovery (except discovery raised in expert reports); and a February 16, 2015, deadline close of expert discovery.

Beginning July 27, 2014, the parties filed a series of motions which all came before the court for hearing on October 1, 2014. The court granted the parties’ joint motion to modify discovery deadlines, setting December 31, 2014, as the new deadline for fact discovery (except discovery raised in expert reports), and April 15, 2015, as the new deadline for expert discovery. As noted in the court’s October 9, 2014, memorializing rulings at hearing, the court took under advisement in part the instant motions: (1) plaintiffs motion to compel discovery responses, related to documents withheld as privileged (DE 274); and (2) plaintiffs motion to strike defendant’s amended invalidity contentions (DE 297) and defendants’ related motion to amend invalidity contentions (DE 320). The court stayed briefing on defendants’ motion for summary judgment of invalidity (DE 281) pending consideration of the motion to strike and motion to amend.

With respect to the motion to compel production of documents withheld as privileged, defendants submitted to the court on October 15, 2014, for in camera review, [562]*562a representative portion of documents in dispute to assist the court’s analysis of defendants’ privilege claims.

On October 3, 2014, plaintiff moved to reopen argument on its motion to strike. The court ordered additional briefing. In the meantime, on October 14, 2014, defendants filed a notice concerning statements made by defendants at the October 1, 2014, hearing concerning discovery of information regarding the HSF 2100 and HSF 3100 disc filters. On October 20, 2014, defendants filed a notice withdrawing arguments made in opposition to the motion to strike, and in support of the motion to amend, that were premised on the portion of Local Rule 303.7 that permits amendment within thirty days of the discovery of new information relevant to the issues of invalidity. Defendants maintained the balance of their arguments pertaining to these motions, however, and the parties completed supplemental briefing November 10, 2014.

DISCUSSION

A. Motions Regarding Invalidity Contentions

Plaintiff moves to strike defendants’ amended invalidity contentions served July 9, 2014, on the basis that they are untimely pursuant to the case schedule established by the Local Patent Rules. The challenged invalidity contentions fall generally into two categories: (1) that parent applications of the two patents-in-suit,1 alone or in combination with other prior art previously disclosed, render the claims of the patents-in-suit invalid; and (2) that prior sales and manuals of the HSF 3100 and HSF 2100 disc filters,2 in themselves or in combination with other prior art previously disclosed, render the claims of the patents-in-suit invalid.3 The court will address each of these categories in turn below.

1. Parent Applications

Defendants argue that the parent application invalidity contentions are based directly on the court’s reasoning in its May 5, 2014, claim construction order. Defendants assert that they believed in good faith that the court’s claim construction order requires the amendments, thus falling within an exception for amendments under Local Patent Rule 303.6(b)(2). Plaintiff contends that amendment on this basis is not warranted because the court’s claim construction ruling was not unexpected.

Under Rule 303.6, a party’s preliminary invalidity contentions generally shall be deemed to be that party’s final contentions, except as set forth in the rule. An [563]*563exception is provided for amendments to invalidity contentions made within 50 days of the court’s claim construction ruling, where the amending party “believes in good faith that the Court’s Claim Construction Ruling so requires.” Local Patent Rule 303.6(b)(2). In this case, where the court entered its claim construction order on May 5, 2014, final invalidity contentions under this rule would have been due June 16, 2014. By consent of the parties, however, the court extended the deadline for final invalidity contentions to July 9, 2014, and defendant duly served its final invalidity contentions by that date. (DE 317-12).

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63 F. Supp. 3d 558, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165747, 2014 WL 6679107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/veolia-water-solutions-technologies-support-v-siemens-industry-inc-nced-2014.