Opinion ID: 209664
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unasserted Claims

Text: The jury found that all claims of the '897 patent and '131 patent were invalid, and the trial court entered judgment accordingly. Targus argues that the trial court erred because only claim 69 of the '897 patent and claims 1 and 50 of the '131 patent were asserted and at issue. Adept responds that all claims of the two patents were placed in issue by the declaratory judgment count in its complaint. If the evidence at trial proved that all the claims were invalid, Adept maintains, the trial judge properly entered judgment on the jury verdict. We agree with Targus that the unasserted claims were not at issue, and thus the trial court erred. First, the scope of Adept's complaint is less than clear. Adept requested a declaratory judgment with respect to the invalidity of Targus's asserted claims, an apparent reference to Targus's assertions of infringement against Adept and its customers prior to the filing of the lawsuit. (First Am. Compl. ¶¶ 57-58.) The complaint does not specify which claims fall into that category. In any event, a reference in the complaint is not sufficient to support a judgment that particular claims are invalid; the specific validity of those claims must have been at issue during the trial and actually litigated by the parties. Datascope Corp. v. SMEC, Inc., 776 F.2d 320, 327 (Fed.Cir.1985). Second, the parties' Joint Final Pretrial Statement demonstrates that only claim 69 of the '897 patent and claims 1 and 50 of the '131 patent were at issue during the trial. In that document, the parties stipulated that the asserted claims of the '897 patent and '131 patent were claim 69 and claims 1 and 50, respectively. (Joint Final Pretrial Statement 31.) Then, under the heading Concise Statement of Issues of Fact and Issues of Law Which Remain for Determination by the Trial Court, the parties included the following two questions: Are the asserted claims of the Shaffer-Moore patents valid? and Are the asserted Shaffer-Moore patents infringed, literally or under the doctrine of equivalents? ( Id. at 32-22.) There were no references whatsoever to the unasserted claims of the '897 patent and '131 patent. Third, at trial, neither party presented evidence with respect to the unasserted claims. Adept's expert, Dr. Brody, expressly limited his validity analysis and opinions to claim 69 of the '897 patent and claims 1 and 50 of the '131 patent. (Trial Tr. 148-49, 184-85, 198-200, 208-10, 213, Oct. 16, 2006.) This is true with respect to both Adept's anticipation and obviousness contentions and its argument that the claims of the '131 patent were invalid due to an on-sale bar. Adept's argument that it was unnecessary for its validity expert to put forth a claim-by-claim analysis of the unasserted claims is simply incorrect. Under the patent statute, the validity of each claim must be considered separately. See 35 U.S.C. § 282 (Each claim of a patent (whether in independent, dependent, or multiple dependent form) shall be presumed valid independently of the validity of other claims. . . .); Schumer v. Lab. Computer Sys., Inc., 308 F.3d 1304, 1316 (Fed.Cir.2002); Sandt Tech., Ltd. v. Resco Metal & Plastics Corp., 264 F.3d 1344, 1356 (Fed.Cir.2001). In this case, it is clear from the parties' pretrial statement and from the trial proceedings that the unasserted claims were neither litigated nor placed in issue during the trial. We therefore reverse the trial court's judgment of invalidity with respect to the unasserted claims, i.e., all the claims of the '897 patent except claim 69 and all the claims of the '131 patent except claims 1 and 50. [9]