NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

 

United States Court of Appeals 

for the Federal Circuit ______________________ 

YOLDAS ASKAN,

Plaintiff-Appellant

v.

FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,

Defendant-Appellee

______________________ 

2022-2117

______________________ 

Appeal from the United States District Court for the 

Middle District of Florida in No. 6:21-cv-01366-PGB-DCI, 

Judge Paul G. Byron.

______________________ 

Decided: June 21, 2023

______________________ 

YOLDAS ASKAN, Birmingham, United Kingdom, pro se.

 ASHLEY BOLAND SUMMER, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, New York, NY, for defendant-appellee. Also 

represented by JOHN BAUER; LLOYD GARRETT FARR, Atlanta, GA; NICOLETTE VILMOS, Orlando, FL. 

 ______________________ 

Before CHEN, HUGHES, and CUNNINGHAM, Circuit Judges.

CHEN, Circuit Judge. 

Case: 22-2117 Document: 55 Page: 1 Filed: 06/21/2023
2 ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 

Yoldas Askan appeals an order by the United States 

District Court for the Middle District of Florida that dismissed his patent-infringement complaint against FARO 

Technologies, Inc. (FARO) on two independent grounds: 

(1) as a sanction for failing to comply with a court order, 

and (2) as precluded under the Kessler doctrine1. Askan v. 

FARO Techs. Inc., Case No. 6:21-cv-1366, 2022 WL 

12058559, at *1, 4 (M.D. Fla. July 8, 2022) (Order). Because the district court did not abuse its discretion in sanctioning Mr. Askan and correctly applied the Kessler

doctrine, we affirm. 

BACKGROUND

We previously considered a dismissal with prejudice in 

a prior litigation between Mr. Askan and FARO because of 

Mr. Askan’s behavior during discovery. Askan v. FARO 

Techs., Inc., 809 F. App’x 880, 883–84 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (per 

curiam) (Askan I). There, Mr. Askan alleged that FARO’s 

Focus 3D scanner product infringed claims of U.S. Patent 

Nos. 8,705,110 (’110 patent); 9,300,841 (’841 patent); and 

10,032,255 (’255 patent). Id. In eight months, Mr. Askan 

was sanctioned twice and failed to respond to an order to 

show cause, timely file a case management report, appear 

for a hearing, comply with a court order compelling discovery, and respond to three separate motions by FARO. Id. 

According to the district court, “dismissal with prejudice 

was warranted” because Mr. Askan’s “repeated violations 

establish[ed] a clear record of delay or willful contempt, far 

beyond mere negligence or confusion.” Id. at 884 (cleaned 

up). The district court further found that Mr. Askan had 

“willfully, in bad faith, and in disregard of his responsibilities” failed to comply with its order requiring him to respond to FARO’s requests for production (RFPs). 

Mr. Askan appealed, and we affirmed. Id. at 884–85.

1 This doctrine finds its origin in the Supreme 

Court’s decision in Kessler v. Eldred, 206 U.S. 285 (1907). 

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ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 3

In April 2021, Mr. Askan filed a new complaint in the 

United States District Court for the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania, this time alleging that FARO’s Focus 3D 

scanner product and SCENE software product infringed 

the same claims of the ’841 and ’255 patents that were at 

issue in Askan I. Order, 2022 WL 12058559, at *1, 4. The 

district court transferred the case to the Middle District of 

Florida under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). Id. at *1.

After the transfer, FARO served RFPs on Mr. Askan. 

Id. at *2. The same day, Mr. Askan served RFPs that were 

“identical word by word” to FARO’s RFPs. Id. Mr. Askan 

subsequently failed to produce any documents in response 

to FARO’s RFPs, instead objecting to each RFP with the 

assertion that because Mr. Askan requested the same documents from FARO, any production by FARO satisfied 

Mr. Askan’s duty to produce. Id. Finding Mr. Askan’s responses deficient and his objections waived, the magistrate 

judge ordered Mr. Askan to respond to FARO’s RFPs by 

May 25, 2022. Id. On May 27, 2022, Askan filed a motion 

for reconsideration that included the same arguments previously rejected by the magistrate judge and the same objections previously deemed waived. Id. Mr. Askan then 

filed a motion for enlargement of time to comply with the 

district court’s order. Id. Before the district court ruled on

the motion, however, Mr. Askan responded to FARO’s 

RFPs by again requesting production of the same documents requested by FARO, again failing to produce any 

documents, and again asserting the same general objection 

to each RFP. Id.

FARO moved for Rule 37 sanctions, seeking dismissal 

with prejudice of Mr. Askan’s complaint, and, separately, 

requested dismissal under the Kessler doctrine. Id. at *1. 

The district court dismissed Mr. Askan’s complaint with 

prejudice on both grounds. Id. at *1 n.1, 7. First, as to the 

Rule 37 sanctions, the district court found that Mr. Askan’s 

“willful disobedience of the Court’s order compelling the 

production of discovery” was neither “excusable” nor “justified,” that Mr. Askan “engaged in conduct delaying or 

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4 ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 

disrupting the litigation and hampering enforcement of a 

Court Order,” and that “this conduct [was] part of a pattern 

tha[t] began in the prior litigation, resulted in dismissal 

and the imposition of attorney’s fees in favor of [FARO], 

and which has failed to deter [Mr. Askan].” Id. Second, the 

district court held that the Kessler doctrine applies to a dismissal with prejudice and does not require that the issue 

of noninfringement or invalidity be “actually litigated.” Id.

at *3–4 (citing In re PersonalWeb Techs. LLC, 961 F.3d 

1365, 1376–77, 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2020)). 

DISCUSSION 

On appeal, Mr. Askan challenges both the district 

court’s dismissal under Rule 37 and dismissal under the 

Kessler doctrine. We review these issues in turn. 

I. Rule 37 Dismissal

We apply regional circuit law when reviewing a district 

court’s sanction decision. United Constr. Prod., Inc. v. Tile 

Tech, Inc., 843 F.3d 1363, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2016). The Eleventh Circuit’s review of a sanction decision is “sharply limited to an abuse-of-discretion standard and a 

determination that the findings of the trial court are fully 

supported by the record.” Circuitronix, LLC v. Kinwong 

Elec. (Hong Kong) Co., 993 F.3d 1299, 1303 (11th Cir. 2021) 

(cleaned up).

Rule 37 authorizes a district court to “dismiss[] the action or proceeding in whole or in part” or “render[] a default 

judgment” against a party that disobeys a discovery order. 

Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(b)(2)(A). The Eleventh Circuit has found 

that Rule 37 sanctions are appropriate “only if noncompliance with discovery orders is due to willful or bad faith disregard for those orders,” such that “the party’s conduct 

amounts to flagrant disregard and willful disobedience of 

discovery orders.” United States v. Real Prop. Located at 

Route 1, 126 F.3d 1314, 1317 (11th Cir. 1997) (cleaned up).

The district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing Mr. Askan’s complaint due to his discovery 

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ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 5

misconduct. Mr. Askan failed to produce any documents in 

response to FARO’s RFPs and counter-served identical 

RFPs to FARO, claiming that this negated any need for 

him to produce documents. Order, 2022 WL 12058559, at 

*2. Despite the magistrate judge’s warning that this response was deficient, Mr. Askan still did not comply with 

FARO’s RFPs. Id. Mr. Askan, instead, filed a belated motion for reconsideration and resubmitted the same objections to the RFPs that the district court already found 

deficient. Id. Worse yet, these discovery violations were a 

repeat from the prior litigation, and Mr. Askan thus had 

notice as to the potential consequence of noncompliance. 

Id. Mr. Askan’s deficient response to FARO’s initial discovery requests and his subsequent disregard of the magistrate judge’s order to comply amounted to a “bad faith,” 

“flagrant disregard and willful disobedience of discovery orders.” Real Prop. Located at Route 1, 126 F.3d at 1317 

(cleaned up). 

Mr. Askan argues otherwise, contending that he served 

the identical RFPs on FARO to “get [FARO] to participate 

in the discovery process” after FARO allegedly ignored 

Mr. Askan’s emails and communications informally requesting information from FARO. Appellant’s Br. 39–40. 

Mr. Askan further asserts the documents that FARO 

sought corresponded to those from Mr. Askan’s production 

in the prior litigation. Id. at 40. 

Mr. Askan’s arguments are unpersuasive. The evidence establishes that FARO complied with the court-ordered discovery process. Mr. Askan offers no support from 

the record indicating that FARO was required to comply 

with Mr. Askan’s informal requests for documents and information. Nor does FARO’s alleged noncompliance excuse 

Mr. Askan from producing materials in response to FARO’s

RFPs or from complying with the court’s order. And

Mr. Askan’s production in the prior litigation does not excuse Mr. Askan from producing those documents in the 

current litigation. Indeed, even if FARO may have possessed documents that Mr. Askan produced in the prior

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6 ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 

litigation, the district court in the prior litigation held that 

production to be deficient. Suppl. App. 3385 (Askan 

v. FARO Techs, Inc., No. 6:18-cv-1122, (M.D. Fla. Dec. 21, 

2018), ECF No. 93).

In view of Mr. Askan’s discovery violations in the current litigation, the district court did not abuse its discretion 

by dismissing Mr. Askan’s complaint under Rule 37.

II. Kessler Doctrine

We also agree with the district court that the dismissal 

with prejudice in the prior litigation precluded Mr. Askan’s 

infringement claims in the current litigation and thus affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of FARO. See Order, 2022 WL 12058559, at *2, 5. We

review the grant of summary judgment under the law of 

the regional circuit in which the district court sits. Classen

Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Elan Pharm., Inc., 786 F.3d 892,

896 (Fed. Cir. 2015). In the Eleventh Circuit, such review 

is de novo. Ellis v. England, 432 F.3d 1321, 1325 (11th Cir.

2005). In assessing whether summary judgment is proper, 

we “view all evidence and make all reasonable inferences 

in favor of the party opposing summary judgment.” Haves

v. City of Miami, 52 F.3d 918, 921 (11th Cir. 1995) (citation

omitted).

We apply the law of the regional circuit to general principles of claim preclusion but apply Federal Circuit law to 

determine whether two causes of action for patent infringement are the same in the context of preclusion. In re PersonalWeb, 961 F.3d at 1374. Two patent actions are 

considered the same if the accused devices in the first action and the accused devices in the second action are “essentially the same.” Id. at 1375; Foster v. Hallco Mfg. Co., 

947 F.2d 469, 479–80 (Fed. Cir. 1991). We consider the

Kessler doctrine to be “a close relative to claim preclusion” 

but without the temporal limitation that prevents claim 

preclusion from being “appl[ied] to acts of alleged infringement that occur after the final judgment in the earlier 

suit.” In re PersonalWeb, 961 F.3d at 1376–77. 

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ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 7

Under the Kessler doctrine, “an adjudged non-infringer” can “avoid repeated harassment for continuing its 

business as usual post-final judgment in a patent action 

where circumstances justify that result.” Id. at 1376. The

Kessler doctrine then “grant[s] a ‘limited trade right’ that 

attaches to the product itself.” Id. at 1378 (quoting SpeedTrack, Inc. v. Office Depot, Inc., 791 F.3d 1317, 1323 (Fed. 

Cir. 2015)). This status also applies to accused products 

that are “essentially the same” as the products at issue in 

the earlier patent action. See Brain Life, LLC v. Elekta 

Inc., 746 F.3d 1045, 1057–58 (Fed. Cir. 2014). 

We agree with the district court that (1) the dismissal 

with prejudice of Mr. Askan’s prior complaint has a preclusive effect under the Kessler doctrine and (2) Mr. Askan 

failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact that the 

products in the prior litigation and the current litigation 

were not essentially the same. 

First, the with-prejudice dismissal in the prior litigation operates as an adjudication of non-liability for infringement under the Kessler doctrine. Mr. Askan argues 

otherwise, contending that the Kessler doctrine does not 

apply because the dismissal with prejudice in the prior litigation did not reach the issue of infringement. See Appellant’s Br. 27–29. We expressly rejected this argument in 

In re PersonalWeb ̧ instead holding that the with-prejudice 

“dismissal operated as an adjudication on the merits for 

claim preclusion purposes” and therefore “operated as an 

adjudication of non-liability for infringement for purposes 

of invoking the Kessler doctrine.” In re PersonalWeb, 961 

F.3d at 1376–79; see Hallco Mfg. Co. v. Foster, 256 F.3d 

1290, 1297 (Fed. Cir. 2001) (stating that “a dismissal with 

prejudice . . . is a judgment on the merits”); accord Citibank, N.A. v. Data Lease Fin. Corp., 904 F.2d 1498, 1501 

(11th Cir.1990) (holding that in the context of claim preclusion, “dismissal of a complaint with prejudice satisfies the 

requirement that there be a judgment on the merits.”); 

Hart v. Yamaha-Parts Distributors, Inc., 787 F.2d 1468, 

1470 (11th Cir. 1986) (“A dismissal with prejudice operates 

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8 ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 

as a judgment on the merits unless the court specifies otherwise.”). Here, we affirmed the district court’s with-prejudice dismissal of Mr. Askan’s prior litigation. Askan I, 

809 F. App’x at 885. This dismissal, in the context of the 

Kessler doctrine, operated as an adjudication of non-liability for infringement. 

Mr. Askan nevertheless argues that his involuntary

dismissal should not have the same preclusive effect as the 

stipulated dismissal at issue in In re PersonalWeb. See Appellant’s Br. 31–34; Appellant’s Reply Br. 24–25, 28. The 

stipulation in In re PersonalWeb, however, has no bearing 

on whether the prior, involuntary dismissal of Mr. Askan’s 

complaint is covered under the Kessler doctrine. In In re 

PersonalWeb, we determined that the stipulation had no 

contingencies, and thus held that the “stipulated dismissal 

with prejudice . . . operated as an adjudication on the merits for claim preclusion purposes.” 961 F.3d at 1379 (citing 

Levi Strauss & Co. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Co., 

719 F.3d 1367, 1372–73 (Fed. Cir. 2013)). Like the dismissal in In re PersonalWeb, the district court’s prior dismissal 

of Mr. Askan’s complaint did not carry any contingencies. 

Thus, this dismissal with prejudice was an adjudication on 

the merits for claim preclusion purposes, and the fact that 

it was involuntary is irrelevant to its preclusive effect.

Second, we agree that the record below does not establish a genuine dispute that the products in the first and 

second litigation are “essentially the same.” The district 

court relied on (1) testimony from FARO’s technical witness explaining that the differences between the products 

at issue in the prior litigation and the current litigation

were immaterial to the asserted patent claims, and 

(2) Mr. Askan’s identical infringement contentions in both 

cases. Order, 2022 WL 12058559, at *4–5; see, e.g., 

Huang v. Huawei Techs. Co., 787 F. App’x 723, 726 & n.1 

(Fed. Cir. 2019) (per curiam) (explaining that identical infringement charts in prior and subsequent actions confirmed that the accused products were the same). 

Mr. Askan did not dispute any of FARO’s factual assertions 

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ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 9

in the district court proceedings. Order, 2022 WL 

12058559, at *5. And now before us, Mr. Askan does not 

cite to any part of the record on appeal that undermines or 

otherwise casts doubt on the evidence supporting the district court’s reasoning.2 This unrebutted evidence of record 

shows that there is no genuine dispute that the products in 

the prior and current litigations are essentially the same. 

Mr. Askan asserts that the district court failed to consider that the current litigation involves a new product, ostensibly suggesting that any preclusive effect of the prior 

litigation does not extend to the accused products in the 

current litigation. See Appellant’s Br. 30–31, 38, 46–47; 

Appellant’s Reply Br. 26–28. Mr. Askan did not raise this 

argument before the district court and, instead, only argued that the Kessler doctrine did not apply because there 

was no judgment of non-infringement in the prior litigation. See Order, 2022 WL 12058559, at *5 (explaining that 

Mr. Askan “does not attempt to rebut [FARO]’s factual assertions and opts instead to stand on the argument that the 

Kessler doctrine does not apply because the 2018 case was 

not decided on the merits”); Suppl. App. 2191–209 (failing 

to challenge the products being essentially the same in 

both cases). Thus, Mr. Askan forfeited this argument. In 

re Google Tech. Holdings LLC, 980 F.3d 858, 862 (Fed. Cir. 

2020). 

To the extent Mr. Askan contends that the district 

court needed to order further discovery to determine 

2 Mr. Askan, in a footnote, refers to a website that he 

never introduced into the record in the district court proceedings. Appellant’s Br. 38 n.6. We do not consider this 

website to be part of the record on appeal. Fed. R. App. 

P. 10(a)(1) (stating the record on appeal contains “the original papers and exhibits filed in the district court”); see also 

Biery v. United States, 818 F.3d 704, 710 (Fed. Cir. 2016) 

(“In general, an appellate court’s review is limited to the 

record presented at the court below.”). 

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10 ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 

whether products are essentially the same, Mr. Askan forfeited this argument as well. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) explains that a party opposing summary 

judgment may request the court to allow discovery if it 

“shows by affidavit or declaration that, for specified reasons, it cannot present facts essential to justify its opposition.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(d); City of Miami Gardens v. Wells 

Fargo & Co., 956 F.3d 1319, 1324 (11th Cir. 2020) (stating 

that it is the nonmoving party’s obligation to comply with 

Rule 56(d) and that a party that fails to comply with 

Rule 56(d) consents to adjudication of the issues on the existing record). Mr. Askan never made such a request under 

Rule 56(d), and any argument based on needing further 

discovery is forfeited.

In sum, Mr. Askan in the current litigation seeks to assert the same patent claims against essentially the same 

product at issue in the prior litigation.3 We agree with the 

district court that the Kessler doctrine precludes him from 

doing so. 

3 Mr. Askan argues that the district court erred in 

its characterization of the amended complaint as involving 

the ’110 patent. Appellant’s Br. 25. The ’110 patent is not 

implicated in the present litigation, and thus whether the 

amended complaint included an allegation of infringement 

with respect to the ’110 patent is not relevant to whether 

the Kessler doctrine precludes the infringement claims in 

the present litigation. Compare Suppl. App. 2685–87 

(Askan v. FARO Techs., Inc., No. 6:18-cv-01122 (M.D. Fla. 

June 21, 2018), ECF No. 1) (alleging infringement of the 

’110, ’841, and ’255 patents) with Suppl. App. 2917–22 

(Askan v. FARO Techs., Inc., No. 6:18-cv-01122 (M.D. Fla. 

June 21, 2018), ECF No. 59) (alleging infringement of the 

’841 and ’255 patents).

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ASKAN v. FARO TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 11

CONCLUSION

We have considered Mr. Askan’s remaining arguments

and find them unpersuasive.4 We therefore affirm the district court’s dismissal.

AFFIRMED

COSTS

Costs to FARO.

4 After initial briefing, Mr. Askan filed a Memorandum in Lieu of Oral Argument, ECF No. 44. FARO subsequently filed a Motion to Strike, ECF No. 47, to remove 

Mr. Askan’s filing from the docket and replace that filing 

with a redacted version, and Mr. Askan filed a Response to 

the Motion, ECF No. 54. The portion of Mr. Askan’s Memorandum that FARO seeks to redact refers to information 

that is outside of the record on appeal and that undermines 

the strong policy interest in keeping the contents of settlement negotiations confidential. See Fed. R. App. P. 10(a)(1) 

(stating the record on appeal contains “the original papers 

and exhibits filed in the district court”). In addition, 

Mr. Askan fails to establish how the information is material to the dispositive issues on appeal. We therefore grant 

FARO’s Motion to Strike. 

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