Second Suit on Different Patents Not Precluded
Trading Techs. Int'l., Inc. v. BCG Partners, Inc., No. 10 C 715 (Consolidated), Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jul. 26, 2011) (Kendall, J.).
Judge Kendall denied the SunGuard defendants' (collectively "SunGuard") summary judgment motion arguing that plaintiff Trading Technologies ("TT") second suit against the same SunGuard products should be dismissed based upon claim splitting or claim preclusion. There is much more on this case and the related cases in the Blog's archives. The parties and the accused products were the same in both cases (filed in 2005 and 2010, respectively), but the patents were different. The Federal Circuit has held that suits based upon different patents involving similar inventions are not the same claims because each patent covered a separate invention. Kearns v. General Motors Corp., 94 F. 3d 1553, 1555 (Fed. Cir. 1996). Because the TT asserted different patents in the two suits, there was no preclusion. It did not matter that that TT could have arguably amended its first suit to add some or all of the later asserted patents.
The Court also deemed TT's Local Rule 56.1 additional statements of fact admitted because SunGuard failed to respond to them.
