Black & Decker Inc. v. Positec USA Inc., No. 13 C 3075, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Feb. 20, 2020) (Gottschall, J.)

Judge Gottschall denied defendants’ (collectively “Positec”) Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 motion for summary judgment of invalidity and granted it as to noninfringement in this patent case involving string trimmers, commonly known as weed-whackers.

The Court did not rely upon plaintiff Black & Decker’s expert opinion regarding infringement because it solely provided conclusions without explanation or detail. The Court also refused to reconsider the meaning of “planar” in the claims. But Positec’s invalidity expert opinion was sufficient to create a question of fact.