Willfullness Determination Opens Door to Prejudice
One purpose for introducing evidence of an ongoing patent reexamination in a parallel litigation is to avoid a post filing (i.e., complaint) willfulness determination. The existence of an ongoing patent reexamination may be admitted to demonstrate that the accused infringer was not objectively reckless in its actions irrespective of its prior knowledge of the asserted patent.
Some courts have found that reexamination evidence defeats a finding of willfulness, these courts typically examine the status of the claims in the reexamination proceeding at the time of the willfulness determination, finding that the weight of the reexamination evidence depends on whether the reexamination proceedings are complete and whether the patent claims have undergone substantive changes in reexamination. When seeking introduction of such evidence, depending upon the court, the stage of the parallel litigation (Summary Judgment, JMOL, Pre-Trial Motions) may determine whether or not it is admissible.
In recent years, courts have been reluctant to admit evidence of an ongoing patent reexamiantion at trial. This is because the presumption of validity may be undermined by communicating to the factfinder(s) that the USPTO has changed their mind. This trend is especially prominent in plantiff forums such as Texas.
Last week, in Imaginal Systematic, LLC v. Leggett & Platt, Inc., et. al., (CACD), the California court expressed a different perspective:
Plaintiff’s Motion in Limine No. 3 seeks an order excluding any evidence relating to the inter partes reexamination proceedings. Plaintiff contends that this evidence is irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial. To the extent the evidence is offered to refute willful infringement allegations, the Court disagrees with Plaintiff’s argument. The evidence relating to the reexamination involves more than the mere fact that the U.S. PTO is reexamining the patents-in-suit. Rather, the evidence includes the fact that the proceedings have reached a stage where U.S. PTO has made findings as to the validity of the subject claims. These findings are directly relevant to whether there was an objectively high likelihood that the patents-in-suit were valid.
As is always the case with patent reexamination and parallel litigation, depending upon the court, your mileage may vary.