Intent to Deceive

Subscribe to Intent to Deceive via RSS

McNamara v. Natural Organics, Inc., No. 10 C 3544, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Sep. 1, 2010) (Shadur, Sen. J.).
Judge Shadur denied defendant’s motion to stay this false patent marking case pending the Federal Circuit’s standing decision in Stauffer (Stauffer has since been decided). The Court also dismissed plaintiff’s second amended complaint for failure to plead the requisite intent to deceive pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) heightened pleading standards. Plaintiff attempted to plead intent upon information and belief using a nine-year-old statement made on defendant’s behalf about its skilled legal representative in an FTC proceeding. But that quoted language referred to a lawyer who was deceased, and he had passed away even before the FTC proceeding. Because plaintiff had already been given two chances to replead, the Court dismissed the case.
…
Continue Reading False Marking Case Dismissed With Prejudice for Failure to Plead Intent

Simonian v. Irwin Indus. Tool Co., No. 10 C 1260, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 27, 2010) (Lindberg, Sen. J.).
Judge Lindberg denied defendant Irwin Industrial Tool’s (“Irwin”) motion to dismiss plaintiff Simonian’s false patent marking case. First, the Court denied Irwin’s standing arguments. While the Federal Circuit had not yet issued its Stauffer decision regarding standing, the Court used similar reasoning. The Court analogized to the False Claims Act and held that any person had standing without proof of an injury in fact. The false marking injury is to the government and the public at large.
The Court also held that Simonian sufficiently pled the requisite intent to deceive, whether notice pleading or Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) standards applied. Simonian pled that Irwin was a “sophisticated company” with years of patent experience and that Irwin knew or should have known the patent was expired when it was marked.
…
Continue Reading Any Person Has Standing to Bring False Patent Marking Claim

Simonian v. Bunn-O-Matic Corp., No. 10 C 1203, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 23, 2010) (Zagel, J.).
Judge Zagel stayed plaintiff Simonian’s false patent marking case pending the Federal Circuit’s standing decision in Stauffer – which has since issued, holding that any person has standing without regard to injury in fact.
The Court also indicated that, once the stay was lifted, it would deny defendant’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss Simonian’s complaint for failure to adequately plead intent to deceive pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). Simonian pled that defendant knowingly marked its coffeemakers with expired patents. That was sufficient to meet the rebuttable presumption of intent as set out in Solo Cup. It did not matter that Simonian’s claims were generic as evidenced by the use of nearly identical allegations in more than forty false patent marking cases Simonian had filed in the Northern District of Illinois.
…
Continue Reading Marking With Expired Patent Sufficient for Pleading Intent