Opinion ID: 3054322
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Abbott’s ’207 Patent Litigation

Text: Kaiser next challenges the district court’s decision excluding evidence of Abbott’s conduct in seeking the ’207 patent. Kaiser hoped to use the evidence to demonstrate that Abbott had not acted in good faith when applying for the ’207 patent, that Geneva knew about the nature of Abbott’s conduct, and that Geneva therefore had no reason to believe that Abbott would prevail in the ’207 patent litigation. The court excluded this evidence because of the MDL court’s ruling that there was no evidence of misconduct in Abbott’s patent prosecution and litigation activity, because the evidence was irrelevant to Geneva’s liability, and because the prejudicial effect of the evidence “substantially outweighed” its probative value. [3] Abbott’s ’207 patent application and its litigation defending the patent’s validity were only marginally relevant to Kaiser’s Section One causation and damages trial. But see MCI Commc’ns Corp. v. AT&T, 708 F.2d 1081, 1159-60 (7th Cir. 1983) (allowing evidence of behavior protected under Noerr-Pennington to be introduced for other relevant purposes). Even though Abbott might have acted improperly in seeking the ’207 patent, as we discuss in a moment, the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the evidence. 442 KAISER FOUNDATION v. ABBOTT LABORATORIES c. Cumulative Effect of Other Evidentiary Decisions [4] Finally, Kaiser challenges a series of exclusions that it argues compound the prejudice it suffered from the other two evidentiary rulings it challenges. Even viewed cumulatively, the exclusions do not constitute abuse of the district court’s broad discretion on evidentiary matters, and we find no prejudice. See Harper v. City of Los Angeles, 533 F.3d 1010, 1030 (9th Cir. 2008).