Questions of Fact re Alleged Enjoined Imitations Prevent Contempt
Liquid Dynamics Corp. v. Vaughan, No. 08 C 6934, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Oct. 20, 2008) (Conlon, J.).
Judge Conlon denied plaintiff's objections to the Magistrate's Report and Recommendations and denied plaintiff's contempt motion. In a prior case, a jury found plaintiff's patent valid and willfully infringed. The Court trebled plaintiff's damages, awarded plaintiff attorney's fees, and entered a permanent injunction preventing defendant from making, using or selling any of 47 mixing systems, or colorable imitations thereof, at issue in the case. Plaintiff brought a second case alleging infringement of 22 additional mixing systems and then filed a contempt motion arguing that the 22 new mixing systems were imitations of the original 47. After an extensive evidentiary hearing, the Magistrate found questions of fact as to whether the 22 mixing systems were colorable imitations of the enjoined systems and, therefore, denied the contempt motion. After a de novo review, the Court affirmed the Magistrate's Recommendation The 22 new mixing systems were not exact duplicates of the enjoined systems and there were questions of fact as to whether the differences were sufficiently minimal to make the new systems colorable imitations. The contempt motion was, therefore, denied, but the infringement case continued.
