Opinion ID: 715659
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Infringement of the Hardware Logic Diagrams

Text: 41 PAC raises four separate issues on appeal concerning the jury award for Bateman and Fricker for PAC's alleged infringement of the copyrighted hardware logic diagrams (Count II). Given our conclusion regarding the improper jury instructions as to Count I and our resultant order of a new trial, we need not address in detail the issues on appeal as to Count II. 34 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(a) permits a court to grant a new trial on all or part of the issues. The Supreme Court has set forth the standard governing the grant of new trials, and it is as follows: [w]here the practice permits a partial new trial, it may not properly be resorted to unless it clearly appears that the issue to be retried is so distinct and separable from the others that a trial of it alone may be had without injustice. Gasoline Prods. Co. v. Champlin Refining Co., 283 U.S. 494, 500, 51 S.Ct. 513, 515, 75 L.Ed. 1188 (1931) (emphasis added); see also Overseas Private Inv. Corp. v. Metropolitan Dade County, 47 F.3d 1111, 1113 (11th Cir.1995) (quoting same). 42 Given this standard, we do not believe that a partial new trial only as to Count I would be proper here. We are convinced that the jury was not properly instructed on Count II, and that the general instructions relative to distinguishing copyrightable subject matter from unprotectable work manifestly infected the deliberative processes of the jury with regard to its evaluation of the infringement claims under Count II. It is quite clear that Counts I and II, although ostensibly involving infringement of separately copyrighted material, are not so distinct and separable from one another to permit a retrial of only one without injustice; stated differently, the two counts are sufficiently interwoven and intertwined so as to require a new trial on both counts. See, e.g., Shessel v. Murphy, 920 F.2d 784, 787 (11th Cir.1991); FIGA v. R.V.M.P. Corp., 874 F.2d 1528, 1534 (11th Cir.1989). Therefore, we vacate the judgment of the district court as to Count II as well and remand for a new trial.