Colt Int'l Clothing Inc. v. Quasar Sci., LLC
Colt Int'l Clothing Inc. v. Quasar Sci., LLC
Opinion of the Court
On March 9, 2018, Defendant Dadco, LLC ("Dadco") filed a Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint ("FAC," Dkt. No. 23). Dkt. No. 29. Plaintiff Colt International Clothing Inc. ("Plaintiff") filed an opposition and Dadco filed a reply. Dkt. Nos. 32, 34. The Court deems this matter appropriate for decision without oral argument and vacates the hearing scheduled for April 6, 2018. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 78 ; LR 7-15. For the following reasons, the Court DENIES the Motion.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Plaintiff's Complaint
The FAC alleges as follows:
Plaintiff's president, Guillermo Macias ("Macias"), developed an elongated, two-color light bulb ("bicolor tube"), FAC, ¶ 16. The bicolor tube can produce two different types of white light, making it useful in the photography and film industries. FAC, ¶ 17. Macias filed a provisional patent application (the "Provisional Application") for the bicolor tube innovation on May 17, 2012. FAC, ¶ 18. Plaintiff then filed a non-provisional patent application and ultimately obtained a patent titled "Tube Light with Improved LED Array,"
*892United States Patent No. 9,719,642 (the "'642 patent"). Id. Plaintiff also obtained a continuation patent, United States Patent No. 9,845,924 (the "'924 patent"). FAC, ¶ 22.
While Plaintiff was prosecuting its patent applications, Quasar Science, LLC ("Quasar") began making and selling bicolor tubes that infringed the '642 and '924 patents. FAC, ¶ 19, Specifically, Quasar's products met all of the limitations set forth in claim 1 of each patent. FAC, ¶¶ 26, 28, Exs. 16, 17. Quasar sold the infringing products to Dadco, which then resold them to photography, production, and film companies. FAC, ¶ 30.
B. Dadco's Request for Judicial Notice
Dadco submitted a request for judicial notice, asking the Court to take judicial notice of documents from the prosecution history of the '642 and '924 patents. Dkt. No. 30 ("RJN"). In particular, Dadco seeks judicial notice of the two patents, the Provisional Application, the non-provisional patent applications, a docket sheet from the United States Patent Office, and an amendment to a non-provisional patent application. Id. Prosecution materials are matters of public record and subject to judicial notice under Fed. R, Civ. P, 201. See Coinstar, Inc. v. Coinbank Automated Sys., Inc. ,
As relevant to Dadco's motion, the Provisional Application contained various figures and schematics. See RJN, Ex. 3. Among them were materials generated by a manufacturer called Zhiyue Optoelectronics ("Zhiyue").
II. LEGAL STANDARD
Fed R. Civ. P. ("Rule") 8 requires a plaintiff to present a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Under Rule 12(b)(6), a defendant may move to dismiss a pleading for "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6).
To defeat a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, the complaint must provide enough detail to "give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly ,
When ruling on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, "a judge must accept as true all of the factual allegations contained in the complaint." Erickson v. Pardus ,
III. DISCUSSION
Dadco's motion to dismiss asserts a single argument for dismissal-that the invention claimed in Plaintiff's patents was *893available to the public over a year before the patents' effective filing date. According to Dadco, Macias's inclusion of the Zhiyue material in the Provisional Application demonstrates that the claimed invention was available to the public before that filing. And because the patents' effective filing date was one year after the filing of the Provisional Application, Dadco argues, the invention must have been publicly available over a year before the patents' effective filing date. Thus, Dadco concludes, the patents are invalid as a matter of law.
In 2011, Congress passed the America Invents Act ("AIA"), which changed United States patent law from a "first to invent" system to a "first to file" system. Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Pub. L. No. 112-29,
The AIA amended § 102(b). It kept the rule that prior public use invalidates a patent, but reduced the scope of the one-year grace period. Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharm. USA, Inc. ,
The AIA applies to patents with effective filing dates on or after March 16, 2013. Pub. L. 112-29, § 3(n)(1), 125 Stat 284, 293 (2011); see also Redline Detection, LLC v. Star Envirotech, Inc. ,
The parties dispute the effective filing date of the '642 and '924 patents. Plaintiff argues that the relevant effective filing date is the date Macias filed his Provisional Application, May 17, 2012. Dadco argues that the effective filing date is May 17, 2013, the date Plaintiff filed its non-provisional patent application.
The Court does not need to decide the effective filing date of the '642 and '924 patents to resolve Dadco's motion, however, because the motion would fail either way. Even under Dadco's theory, the effective filing date of the patents was, at the latest, May 17, 2013. For the patents to be invalid, then, the invention would have had to have been publicly disclosed prior to *894that date. But the FAC and judicially-noticed materials do not support such a conclusion.
To adopt Dadco's invalidity argument, the Court would have to take the FAC and judicially-noticed materials, make assumptions that favor Dadco, and ignore the reasonable inferences that favor Plaintiff. Dadco claims the Zhiyue materials in Macias's Provisional Application demonstrate that the invention was publicly disclosed before the date he filed that application. In making this argument, Dadco assumes that those materials must have been publicly available by virtue of the fact that Macias obtained them. But Dadco provides no convincing reason for the Court to take that assumption as true, particularly at the dismissal stage, where all reasonable inferences are to be made in Plaintiff's favor. The fact that Macias had the Zhiyue materials certainly does not mean that they were publicly available. He could have obtained those materials directly from Zhiyue, not through public channels. Indeed, Plaintiff's opposition indicates that Zhiyue was simply the manufacturer Macias commissioned to work on the bicolor tube invention. Construing all reasonable inferences in Plaintiff's favor, the Court cannot conclude that the bicolor tube invention was publicly available before the effective filing date of Plaintiff's patents.
In its reply, Dadco argues that Plaintiff should have specifically alleged in the FAC that Zhiyue was Macias's manufacturer. But Dadco raised the public disclosure issue, not Plaintiff. Plaintiff is not required to anticipate each fact-based defense Dadco might assert and plead facts to refute that defense. Rather, Plaintiff's burden at this stage is to set forth sufficient facts to state a patent infringement claim. It has done so.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court DENIES Dadco's motion to dismiss.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
To the extent Dadco argues that Macias's Provisional Application was a public disclosure that invalidates the '642 and '924 patents, it presents no reason for the Court to assume that the Provisional Application was publicly disclosed before Plaintiff filed its non-provisional application. Provisional patent applications generally do not become public until well after they are filed, if at all. See
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COLT INTERNATIONAL CLOTHING INC. v. QUASAR SCIENCE, LLC
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- 2 cases
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- Published