Feit Elec. Co. v. Beacon Point Capital, LLC, No. 13 C 9339, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Sep. 22, 2017) (Coleman, J.).

Judge Coleman, having previously granted declaratory judgment plaintiff Feit summary judgment of the unenforceability of one of defendant Beacon Point’s patents based upon collateral estoppel, denied Feit summary judgment of a subsequent motion seeking to overcome its prior evidentiary deficiencies in the Ole Nilssen-related patent dispute.

As an initial matter, Feit did not show patentee’s recitation of an earlier date in the patent application although it only claimed priority to an undisputed filing date. Simply reciting earlier applications is not proof of claiming an earlier date. Even assuming there was a misstatement, Feit did not show the required intent to deceive. There was conflicting evidence as to whether Nilssen intentionally misrepresented the patent ancestry to maintain a license agreement.