Fed Circuit sides with Apex and Sears in wrench patent suit
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a win for Apex Tool Group and Sears in a patent infringement suit.
Lawyers for Apex and Sears said the ruling, issued Wednesday, November 13, would likely bring to an end a long-running patent suit filed by Loggerhead Tools, which was previously awarded $6 million in damages.
Loggerhead sued Apex and Sears at the US District Court for the District of Northern Illinois for infringing two patents for a type of wrench.
In May 2017, a jury found Apex and Sears liable for patent infringement and awarded $6 million in damages to Loggerhead.
Apex and Sears contended that the trial and subsequent verdict was “infected” by an erroneous claim construction on part of the district court judge.
Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, taking over the case at the district court after the original judge passed away, threw out the original verdict and damages award. The case was retried based on the revised claim construction.
The district court then granted summary judgment to Apex and Sears in May 2018, finding as a matter of law that they had not infringed Loggerhead’s patents.
Loggerhead appealed against the new verdict to the Federal Circuit, which heard oral arguments earlier this month.
The appellate court has now affirmed the latest district court ruling in favour of Apex and Sears.
The Federal Circuit’s order was a rule 36 judgment, meaning it contains no written explanation of the court’s reasoning.
Kirkland & Ellis law firm, which represented Apex and Sears, said the Federal Circuit’s ruling means “LoggerHead has little hope of prevailing on any further appeal”.
Marc Sernel, lead counsel for Apex and Sears and partner at Kirkland, said: “We are very pleased by the Federal Circuit’s decision, which affirms judge Pallmeyer’s well-reasoned opinion finding no infringement and confirms our belief all along that Apex and Sears acted appropriately throughout.”
“We expect that this should be the last chapter in a long and sometimes painful road to the correct result,” he added.
While the Federal Circuit’s judgment is only in respect to claims brought against Apex, LoggerHead had previously undertaken not to appeal claims against Sears due to the department store chain filing for bankruptcy last year.
Apex had agreed to indemnify Sears against Loggerhead’s patent claims.
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