Opinion ID: 2683355
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Forfeiture of JMOL on Anticipation

Text: Medisim first argues that BestMed failed to move for JMOL on anticipation under Rule 50(a), so it was foreclosed from doing so under Rule 50(b). Therefore, Medisim claims that the district court should have refrained from ruling on anticipation after the jury verdict under Rule 50(b). BestMed denies such forfeiture. In support of its argument, it points to a statement it made on the record at the close of evidence in opposition to Medisim’s JMOL motion for no anticipation. Its counsel stated: “On . . . anticipation, I submit that the jury can readily find that the FHT-1 product, Medisim’s own product, is anticipatory. There’s clear and convincing evidence, we submit, on that issue. Also [Medisim’s witnesses’] testimony support[s] that position. But, again, it’s definitely something for the jury.” J.A. 4530. While BestMed concedes that this statement was “not a model of clarity,” it argues that Medisim was on notice of BestMed’s position. Appellant’s Br. 59. Further, BestMed notes that when Medisim moved to strike BestMed’s Rule 50(b) motion on anticipation, the district court 8 MEDISIM LTD. v. BESTMED, LLC recognized that BestMed had “asserted its present invalidity contentions on the record, and the Court ha[d] stated that all of its contentions had been re-asserted and preserved.” Order at 3, Medisim Ltd. v. BestMed LLC, No. 1:10-cv-02463 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 18, 2013), ECF No. 190. The district court concluded that Medisim had not been unfairly surprised by BestMed’s anticipation contentions. Id. The district court explained: [T]he rule of Duro-Last, Inc. v. Custom Seal, Inc., which i4i Partnership applies, is based on the proposition that it would be impermissible under the Seventh Amendment to re-examine the jury’s verdict upon grounds not raised prior to the ver- dict. Here, this rule is easily met: BestMed has pressed its invalidity contentions since well before the jury was sworn, the jury was instructed as to invalidity, and BestMed presented its present invalidity contentions, and its supporting evidence, on the record. Id. at 4. While Medisim may not have been surprised by BestMed’s invalidity contentions, the Supreme Court has held previously that our Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are to be strictly followed in circumstances such as this one. In Unitherm, for example, a party moved for a directed verdict under Rule 50(a) prior to the district court’s submission of the case to the jury, but following the verdict the party failed to renew its motion for JMOL pursuant to Rule 50(b). See 546 U.S. at 398. In preventing the party from challenging the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, the Supreme Court stated that “a party is not entitled to pursue a new trial on appeal unless that party makes an appropriate postverdict motion in the district court.” Id. at 404. While the issue here is whether BestMed failed to move under Rule 50(a), the principle of forfeiture articulated in Unitherm reMEDISIM LTD. v. BESTMED, LLC 9 mains the same. See, e.g., Yakus v. United States, 321 U.S. 414, 444 (1944) (“No procedural principle is more familiar to this Court than that a . . . right may be forfeited . . . by the failure to make timely assertion of the right before a tribunal having jurisdiction to determine it.”). With that principle in mind, we conclude that BestMed forfeited its right to move for JMOL on anticipation. The statement that BestMed now relies on as evidence of a motion for JMOL actually indicates the opposite— BestMed’s counsel stated that anticipation was “definitely something for the jury.” J.A. 4530. Further, BestMed’s counsel made this statement in opposition to Medisim’s motion for JMOL under Rule 50(a); BestMed never moved on its own for JMOL on anticipation before the case was submitted to the jury. See id. Indeed, BestMed’s counsel conceded that BestMed “did not expressly say [that] we cross-move for JMOL when they moved for JMOL on the anticipation issue . . . .” Oral Arg. 22:59-23:08 available at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/oral-argument-recordings/ 13-1451/all. Finally, regarding the district court’s statement that BestMed had “preserved the record, [and] renewed all the motions previously made,” we note that this statement was made following a discussion of BestMed’s unjust enrichment claims. See J.A. 4398. The district court’s later statement that “the [c]ourt ha[d] stated that all of its contentions had been re-asserted and preserved” came only after Medisim requested that the district court strike BestMed’s Rule 50(b) motion regarding validity. See Order at 3, Medisim Ltd. v. BestMed LLC, No. 1:10-cv-02463 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 18, 2013), ECF No. 190. But by then it was too late—BestMed had already forfeited the right to move for JMOL under Rule 50(b). Therefore, we conclude that the district court legally erred in ruling on any validity issues after the jury verdict under Rule 50(b). Because we vacate the district court’s grant of JMOL on anticipation due to forfeiture, we need not consider 10 MEDISIM LTD. v. BESTMED, LLC whether the district court erred in granting JMOL on anticipation on the merits.