Trading Techs. Int’l., Inc. v. BCG Partners, Inc., No. 10 C 715, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. May 5, 2011) (Kendall, J.).

Judge Kendall granted the FuturePath defendants’ and denied the SunGuard defendants’ Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss plaintiff Trading Technologies’ ("TT") patent claims regarding trading software.

FuturePath:  The Court dismissed TT’s direct infringement claims against FuturePath because TT did not accuse a specific FuturePath product or even category of product. TT’s reference to unspecified "products" did not meet the Twomby or Iqbal standards, nor did it meet the Federal Circuit’s requirements in McZel v. Spring Nextel Corp., 501 F. 3d 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Identification of an accused product in TT’s briefing and reference to FuturePath’s website in TT’s indirect infringement claims were insufficient.

TT did not allege that FuturePath had knowledge of TT’s patents. Without an allegation of knowledge, TT’s claims were deficient. The Court, therefore, dismissed all of TT’s claims against FuturePath with leave to replead correcting the deficiencies.

SunGuard:  TT alleged that SunGuard had constructive knowledge of TT’s patents, but not actual knowledge. Constructive knowledge was sufficient to maintain TT’s claims, regardless of whether the Federal Circuit might later hold constructive knowledge insufficient.