Opinion ID: 3006759
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dr. Shukh’s Reputation as an Inventor

Text: First, a genuine dispute exists as to whether Dr. Shukh’s omission as a named inventor on the disputed patents harmed his reputation as an inventor. Dr. Shukh presented evidence supporting his contention that a scientist’s professional reputation is influenced by the number of patents on which that scientist is named. He provided an expert report explaining that being named on a patent means that the inventor’s “standing and reputation in the related technology community has been enhanced, including among their employers or potential employers.” J.A. 8817. The expert also wrote that “inventors take great pride in their inventorship abilities and accomplishments” and that named inventors’ contributions on patents are “considered positively when a technology professional is being considered for a promotion.” J.A. 8816; see also J.A. 5592 (expert report stating that adding the disputed patents to Dr. Shukh’s portfolio would have “significantly strengthened” his claim to the Immigration and Naturalization Service that he was an “outstanding professor or researcher” and therefore merited permanent residency). Dr. Shukh also showed that Seagate itself valued the number of patents its employees were named on. For SHUKH v. SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY, LLC 9 example, Seagate gave financial rewards, J.A. 5215, and enrolled employees in its Inventor’s Hall of Fame, J.A. 5214, based on an employee’s number of named patents. Dr. Shukh’s Fiscal Year 2007 Performance Evaluation further reinforces this conclusion. In the performance evaluation, Dr. Shukh’s manager wrote that Dr. Shukh “has a significant patent portfolio; however, I am concerned that the number of patent applications has been reduced over the last two years—albeit, partially due to issues with the [Seagate Patent Review Board] and Seagate policy.” J.A. 5222. He concluded that he would “like to see [Dr. Shukh] increase his patent portfolio in [Fiscal Year 2008].” 2 Id. The district court acknowledged this evidence, but nonetheless concluded that Dr. Shukh did not raise a genuine issue of material fact with respect to his reputation as an inventor. In doing so, it relied on undisputed testimony from Dr. Shukh and his former manager and coworkers that Dr. Shukh had a reputation as a leading scientist in his field. Summary Judgment Order at . The court also noted that Dr. Shukh testified that his reputation for “honesty, good organization, openness and 2 The district court discounted this evidence be- cause the manager “clarified in his deposition testimony that he was concerned with the decrease in the number of invention disclosures that [Dr.] Shukh made to Seagate, and not concerned with the decrease in the total number of patent applications filed with the USTPO that listed [Dr.] Shukh as an inventor.” Summary Judgment Order at . In doing so, the district court improperly made a factual finding on summary judgment. Cf. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249–50. Moreover, this interpretation contradicts the plain language of the evaluation. The district court erred when it discounted Dr. Shukh’s performance evaluation at this stage. 10 SHUKH v. SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY, LLC straightforwardness and communications, good technical abilities, innovation and extreme competitiveness did not change from 2002 until 2012.” Id. (quoting J.A. 8962–64) (alteration omitted). Finally, the court wrote that Dr. Shukh’s former co-workers testified that their impression of Dr. Shukh as an “excellent inventor with good technical skills” would not change based on the number of patents he was named on. Id. at . From all this, the district court concluded that Dr. Shukh’s professional reputation had not been harmed by his omission from the disputed patents. In coming to this conclusion, the district court improperly made findings of fact on summary judgment and did not make all factual inferences in Dr. Shukh’s favor. A trier of fact could conclude that Dr. Shukh’s omission from the disputed patents had a concrete impact on his reputation in his field. There is significant evidence that the number of patents an inventor is named on influences his reputation in the field of the patents. Dr. Shukh’s professional reputation is based on his work in semiconductor physics—the same field as the disputed patents. Moreover, Dr. Shukh is named as an inventor on seventeen issued patents for work done at Seagate; he argues here that he should be named as an inventor on an additional six issued patents and four pending applications. The disputed patents would therefore form a significant portion of the patents granted to Dr. Shukh during his tenure at Seagate. True, it is undisputed that Dr. Shukh had a reputa- tion as an excellent inventor, and that this reputation did not decrease while he was at Seagate. However, this does not mean that Dr. Shukh’s omission from the patents did not harm his reputation. The evidence supports the conclusion that Dr. Shukh’s reputation as an inventor would have been higher had he been named on the pa- tents. Likewise, the testimony of Dr. Shukh’s coworkers SHUKH v. SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY, LLC 11 that additional patents would not change their impression of Dr. Shukh’s technical abilities does not speak to whether additional patents would improve Dr. Shukh’s reputation in the eyes of potential employers. Dr. Shukh’s coworkers had years of experience working directly with Dr. Shukh, unlike potential employers, who likely lack that first-hand knowledge and are therefore more likely to rely on their knowledge of Dr. Shukh’s reputation in evaluating their impression of him. Considering all of the evidence, we find there is a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Dr. Shukh’s reputation as an inventor was harmed by his omission from the disputed patents.