Opinion ID: 2981417
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: lexmark’s patent counterclaims

Text: Lexmark counterclaimed in the 04 Action that Static Control induced the remanufacturers to infringe several patents relating to Lexmark’s toner cartridges. At trial, the jury determined that Lexmark had failed to meet its burden of showing direct infringement by Static Control’s customers as a class and its burden of showing Static Control induced infringement by the three named remanufacturers already held to be direct infringers. Following the trial, Lexmark renewed a motion for judgment as a matter of law and filed a motion for a new trial on whether the jury’s verdict was unreasonable in light of the evidence of direct infringement by the class, which the district court denied. Lexmark also sought a new trial on the issue of inducement after the district court excluded questions at trial relating to the procurement of opinion-ofcounsel letters, which the district court also denied. Lexmark appeals these rulings, and we affirm. Lexmark also appeals an earlier ruling by the district court on summary judgment that Lexmark’s design patents were invalid as a matter of law, which we also affirm.
We review de novo a district court’s decision to deny a motion for a judgment as a matter of law under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50. Mike’s Train House, Inc. v. Lionel, L.L.C., 472 F.3d 398, 405 (6th Cir. 2006). A renewed motion for a judgment as a matter of law following an adverse jury verdict “may only be granted if, when viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, giving that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences . . . reasonable minds could come to but one conclusion in favor of the moving party.” Barnes v. City of Cincinnati, 401 F.3d 729, 736 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 546 U.S. 1003 (2005). Judgment as a matter of law is Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 32 appropriate only where there is no “legally sufficient evidentiary basis” for a reasonable jury “to find for the [non-moving] party on that issue.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a)(1). We will not substitute our interpretation of the evidence for the jury’s, even if we would have reached a different conclusion. Barnes, 401 F.3d at 738. We review for abuse of discretion a district court’s decision to deny a motion for a new trial under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59. Mike’s Train House, 472 F.3d at 405. A new trial is warranted after a jury verdict “for any reason for which a new trial has heretofore been granted in an action at law in federal court.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(a). We have previously held that a new trial is appropriate when the jury reaches a “seriously erroneous result as evidenced by (1) the verdict being against the [clear] weight of the evidence; (2) the damages being excessive; or (3) the trial being unfair to the moving party in some fashion, i.e., the proceedings being influenced by prejudice or bias.” Mike’s Train House, 472 F.3d at 405 (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted) (quoting Holmes v. City of Massillon, 78 F.3d 1041, 1045-46 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 935 (1996)); see also Barnes v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., 201 F.3d 815, 820 (6th Cir. 2000) (new trial appropriate only if “verdict is against the clear weight of the evidence”). Lexmark’s argument relies on the first and third of these potential errors. We review de novo a district court’s grant of summary judgment. Int’l Union v. Cummins, Inc., 434 F.3d 478, 483 (6th Cir. 2006). The moving party is entitled to summary judgment when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the issue may be resolved as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). The evidence on summary judgment must be construed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 587. When genuine issues of material fact remain, the proper course of action is to submit such questions to the finder of fact. B. Evidence of Direct Infringement by Static Control’s Customers as a Class Lexmark argues on appeal that the evidence established as a matter of law that Static Control’s customers as a class directly infringed Lexmark’s patents. Lexmark seeks to overturn the jury’s verdict to the contrary. To establish a claim for patent Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 33 inducement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b), Lexmark bore the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that (1) Static Control’s customers directly infringed Lexmark’s patents; (2) Static Control took active steps that induced the customers’ infringement; (3) Static Control intended the customers to take the infringing acts; and (4) Static Control knew or willfully disregarded the risk that those actions by its customers would constitute direct infringement. See Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 131 S. Ct. 2060, 2065-67 (2011). Patent infringement by a third-party is therefore a necessary predicate to inducement to infringe. A plaintiff can establish the first element of inducement to infringe either by demonstrating “specific instances of direct infringement or a finding that the accused products necessarily infringe.” Lucent Techs., Inc. v. Gateway, Inc., 580 F.3d 1301, 1322 (Fed. Cir. 2009), cert. denied, 130 S. Ct. 3324 (2010); see also Dynacore Holdings Corp. v. U.S. Philips Corp., 363 F.3d 1263, 1275-76 (Fed. Cir. 2004) (citing Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 441 (1984)); 5 DONALD S. CHISUM, CHISUM ON PATENTS § 17.04[1] (2011). When the plaintiff can show only individual instances of direct infringement, the plaintiff may recover only for the damages from those individual acts. Dynacore, 363 F.3d at 1274. If the plaintiff can show an entire class of customers necessarily infringed, damages can be sought more broadly across the entire class. Id. Direct patent infringement occurs under 35 U.S.C. § 271(a) when someone “(1) without authority (2) makes, uses, offers to sell, sells, or imports (3) the patented invention (4) within the United States, its territories, or its possessions (5) during the term of the patent.” HERBERT F. SCHWARTZ & ROBERT J. GOLDMAN, PATENT LAW AND PRACTICE 163-64 (6th ed. 2008); see also Global-Tech, 131 S. Ct. at 2065 n.2 (“Direct infringement has long been understood to require no more than the unauthorized use of a patented invention.”). Determining whether someone is making, using, or selling a patented invention “requires a finding that the patent claim covers the alleged infringer’s product or process,” Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370, 374 (1996) (internal quotation marks omitted). The determination that a patent’s claims cover a Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 34 specific device is often referred to as “literal infringement.” SCHWARTZ, supra, at 174. Literal infringement alone is not enough to support a claim for inducement, because the predicate to inducement is a violation of 35 U.S.C. § 271(a), which requires more than that the accused devices literally infringe. For example, a party could not be liable for inducing infringement if an accused device literally infringed a patent claim but the literal infringer had authority to use the patent or a patent had otherwise expired, thereby defeating a determination of direct patent infringement. See, e.g., Aro Mfg. Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co., 377 U.S. 476, 483 (1964) (sustaining claim for contributory infringement upon determining that user of patented item lacked authorization, thereby directly infringing). An accused device will necessarily infringe, permitting a finding of direct infringement by a class of customers and an inference that the inducer intended the infringement, if the “customers can only use the [defendant’s] products in an infringing way.” Symantec Corp. v. Computer Assocs. Int’l, Inc., 522 F.3d 1279, 1293 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (reversing summary judgment on inducement because plaintiff did not need to show specific instances of direct infringement when defendants’ product could not be used in a non-infringing way); see also Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913, 932 (2005) (“[W]here an article is good for nothing else but infringement, there is no injustice in presuming or imputing an intent to infringe.”) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). When an accused device could be used in either an infringing or a non-infringing way, a claim of direct infringement based on necessary infringement fails and cannot sustain an inducement claim. ACCO Brands, Inc. v. ABA Locks Mfr. Co., 501 F.3d 1307, 1313-14 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (reversing jury verdict of inducement to infringe patented method because no evidence of direct infringement and accused product could be used in either an infringing or a noninfringing way); CHISUM, supra, § 17.04[1]. Prior to the jury’s verdict, the district court granted summary judgment to Lexmark on whether the three named remanufacturers—Wazana, NER, and Pendl—directly infringed Lexmark’s nine valid mechanical patents. R. 1245 (D. Ct. Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 35 Order 5/31/07) (holding direct infringement); R. 1008 (D. Ct. Order 4/24/07 at 48-49) (holding mechanical patents valid). Lexmark had therefore established the necessary predicate to inducement, but could recover only for those three remanufacturers’ infringement unless Lexmark could demonstrate that all of Static Control’s customers as a class necessarily infringed. The question of direct infringement by Static Control’s customers as a class was submitted to the jury, which held that Lexmark had failed to meet its burden. R. 1366 (Special Verdict Form at 1). The district court denied Lexmark’s renewed motion for a judgment as a matter of law and also Lexmark’s motion for a new trial on this issue, finding that the evidence in support of Lexmark did not compel a different result. The district court upheld the jury’s verdict because “[t]hough Lexmark presented evidence of infringement by Static Control’s customers, that evidence was not so overwhelming that reasonable people could come to but one conclusion.” R. 1430 (D. Ct. Order 10/03/08 at 9). Lexmark argues that the district court erroneously conflated the directinfringement inquiry, which Lexmark must establish, with the affirmative defense of patent exhaustion, which Static Control must establish. Lexmark offered as circumstantial evidence of infringement by the class the testimony of an expert establishing that the toner cartridges remanufactured by Wazana, NER, and Pendl all literally infringed the claims present in the nine mechanical patents. Although Lexmark offered no testimony regarding specific cartridges from other remanufacturers, Static Control has not argued or even suggested that the unidentified remanufacturers’ cartridges did not literally infringe at least some of the more than one hundred patent claims that cover the original cartridges. Instead, Static Control argues that Lexmark confuses literal infringement with direct infringement, and, as the district court held, some of the toner cartridges could not sustain a claim for direct infringement because they were sold domestically first, thereby exhausting Lexmark’s patent rights. Third Appellant Br. at 40-41. Lexmark has conceded that its patent rights were exhausted in the non-Prebate cartridges sold first in the United States and certain cartridges sold to IBM customers. Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 36 Part of the problem here is that the jury instructions never defined what it means for a party to “directly infringe” a patent. Lexmark maintains that when the jury was asked to decide whether Static Control’s customers as a class “directly infringed,” the question must have related solely to whether the remanufactured toner cartridges as a class literally infringed, because Static Control’s sole arguments against direct infringement related to patent exhaustion, which was delineated as a separate question on the jury’s special-verdict form. R. 1366 (Special Verdict Form at 1, 4). Lexmark is theoretically correct—exhaustion of a patentee’s rights is a defense to direct infringement and is not the same as establishing a non-infringing use of a patented device, which would defeat a finding that Static Control’s customers necessarily infringed the patents. However, this distinction was never clearly made to the jury. Lexmark’s claim fails upon closer examination of the jury’s instructions. The jury instructions explicitly suggested that patent exhaustion would defeat a finding of “direct” infringement, as opposed to operating only as a defense following a showing of direct infringement: I instruct you that there are at least two kinds of uses of microchips made by Static Control that are lawful and do not directly infringe any Lexmark patent. . . . The first non-infringing use of Static Control’s microchips is in the remanufacture of Non-Prebate Lexmark cartridges that were first sold by Lexmark in the United States. Static Control has no liability for active inducement of infringement when its microchips are used in those cartridges because those cartridges may be lawfully remanufactured by anyone without directly infringing any patent rights of Lexmark. R. 1365 (Jury Instructions at 18) (emphasis added). The district court then gave the same instruction with respect to the IBM cartridges. Although Lexmark is correct that exhaustion should be an affirmative defense,13 at no point did Lexmark object to the district court’s statement that exhausted cartridges could not “directly infringe” Lexmark’s patents. See R. 1119 (Lexmark’s Objections to Proposed Jury Instructions); 13 The jury instructions later also define exhaustion as Static Control’s burden, using the exact same categories of cartridges the jury was previously instructed did not “directly infringe.” R. 1365 (Jury Instructions at 25-26). Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 37 R. 1171 (Jury Instructions Hr’g Tr.); R. 1361 (Joint Proposed Corrections to Final Instructions). Jurors are presumed to be “diligent in following the precise instructions given to them.” United States v. Tosh, 330 F.3d 836, 842 (6th Cir. 2003). The evidence presented by Lexmark was not so strong as to prevent a reasonable juror from concluding that some members of the class remanufactured cartridges in a non-infringing manner, as defined by the district court. With two categories of cartridges that categorically did not “directly infringe,” according to the jury instructions, the jury reasonably could have concluded Lexmark had not met its burden of showing that the remanufacturers as a class “necessarily infringed” Lexmark’s patents by remanufacturing exhausted cartridges. See ACCO Brands, 501 F.3d at 1313 (“Because the accused device can be used at any given time in a noninfringing manner, the accused device does not necessarily infringe the [plaintiff’s] patent.”). Nor was Lexmark’s circumstantial evidence of literal infringement sufficient to compel a conclusion that all of Static Control’s customers literally infringed, even if this were an appropriate inquiry. Lexmark’s own expert, Dr. Reinholtz, stated that he examined remanufactured cartridges from only the three named companies and did not know if other companies’ remanufactured cartridges literally infringed. R. 1216 (Trial Tr. 5/25/07 at 42-43). Although this may have been sufficient circumstantial evidence to sustain a jury verdict of infringement, the evidence certainly does not compel one. As a result, Lexmark was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law or a new trial on the issue of whether Static Control’s customers directly infringed as a class. Barnes, 401 F. 3d at 736 (holding post-trial judgment as a matter of law improper unless “reasonable minds could come to but one conclusion in favor of the moving party”); Owens-Corning, 201 F.3d at 821 (holding new trial improper “if a reasonable juror could have reached the challenged verdict”). C. Excluded Evidence Relating to Intent to Induce Infringement Lexmark claims that it was entitled to a new trial on the issue of inducement of the three direct infringers because the district court erroneously excluded certain Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 38 questions relating to opinion-of-counsel letters at trial, rendering the proceedings unfair. We review for abuse of discretion.14 At trial, Lexmark was not allowed to ask Static Control’s CEO explicitly whether Static Control had ever obtained a legal opinion regarding potential patent or antitrust violat ions. R. 1269 (Trial Tr. at 108-09). Static Control objected to the presentation of evidence relating to Static Control’s failure to obtain advice of counsel, even though Static Control had made available to third parties advice of counsel on the issue of whether Prebate violated contract law.15 R. 1269 (Trial Tr. 06/04/07 at 108-09). The district court agreed and instructed the witness not to answer. Lexmark claims that it was “manifestly unfair” to permit the CEO to testify regarding the procurement of exculpatory advice from counsel but not permit Lexmark “to identify failures to procure such advice as circumstantial evidence of intent to infringe.” Second Appellee Br. at 34 (quoting Broadcom Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., 543 F.3d 683, 699 (Fed. Cir. 2008)). Lexmark’s argument on appeal relies heavily on Broadcom, 543 F.3d 683, a Federal Circuit case issued after trial but before the district court ruled on Lexmark’s motion. Broadcom held that “[i]t would be manifestly unfair to allow opinion-of-counsel evidence to serve an exculpatory function . . . and yet not permit patentees to identify failures to procure such advice as circumstantial evidence of intent to infringe.” Broadcom, 543 F.3d at 699. Although Broadcom appears to support Lexmark’s position, the district court ruled against Lexmark, see R. 1521 (D. Ct. Op. & Order at 16-19), after reading Broadcom in the context of the Federal Circuit’s prior 14 Lexmark suggests on appeal that the entirety of the jury’s verdict on inducement was “unreasonable and against the weight of the evidence.” Second Appellee Br. at 32. This argument, however, is briefed in the context of the excluded opinion-of-counsel letter and only further elaborated upon in Reply. Despite Lexmark’s apparent waiver of this issue, the merits of the sufficiency-of-theevidence argument is discussed herein due to its relevance to the opinion-of-counsel issue. 15 Static Control’s general counsel had previously obtained a legal opinion letter regarding the illegality of Lexmark’s Prebate program under principles of property and contract law. Static Control provided this letter to its customers as assurance that “Prebate does not create any legal barrier to the purchase and reuse by others of ‘prebate’ cartridges.” J.A. at 1280 (Letter from Static Control). The letter from counsel stated that it “does not deal with the application of either patent law or antitrust law” to Lexmark’s Prebate program. However, despite this assertion, the letter includes a short paragraph stating that counsel “see[s] nothing in either area of [patent or antitrust] law that would raise any questions about my conclusion [and] there are doctrines in both areas of law that might well prevent the successful adoption by any manufacturer” of a program to prevent reuse of toner cartridges. Id. at 1286. Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 39 ruling in Knorr-Bremse Systeme Fuer Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH v. Dana Corp., 383 F.3d 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2004) (en banc), which held that it would be “inappropriate to draw a[n] . . . adverse inference from failure to consult counsel” when an accused infringer was under no obligation in the first place to obtain advice of counsel on whether it was infringing. Id. at 1345. We need not decide whether a party’s failure to obtain an opinion-of-counsel letter may ever constitute circumstantial evidence of the requisite intent to induce infringement. Even if we assume that this evidence was wrongly excluded, the best-case scenario for Lexmark—a negative answer to the forbidden question—would not have changed the jury’s verdict on this issue. Lexmark bore the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that Static Control had the requisite intent to induce infringement. The Supreme Court has recently clarified that this means that the alleged inducer must intend the customers to take the acts that ultimately constituted infringement and the inducer must know or willfully disregard the risk that those actions by its customers would constitute direct infringement. See Global-Tech, 131 S. Ct. at 2065. By way of analogy, the Supreme Court compared a used-car salesman who encouraged a customer to buy a car that later turned out to be damaged to a used-car salesman who encouraged a customer to buy a car knowing it was damaged; we fault the latter more than the former. Lexmark correctly explains that “advertising infringing uses, instructing how to engage in infringing uses, demonstrating infringing uses, and recommending infringing uses is strong evidence of specific intent to cause the actions that constitute direct infringement.” Second Appellee Br. at 31 (citing Grokster, 545 U.S. at 936). But, given the jury instructions that delineated certain cartridges as non-infringing, Lexmark’s evidence needed to show that Static Control advertised, instructed, or otherwise recommended the remanufacture of infringing cartridges, which at the time of trial were the Prebate cartridges and the cartridges first sold outside the United States. Lexmark’s proof, however, is not compelling enough for us to find that the district court abused its discretion in upholding the jury verdict. Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 40 Lexmark argues that it presented specific evidence demonstrating that Static Control encouraged and instructed remanufacturers to remanufacture Prebate cartridges and cartridges first sold overseas, the two categories not deemed “non-infringing” at trial. But the testimony primarily indicated that Static Control encouraged and instructed its customers to remanufacture cartridges generally and such instructions did not distinguish between foreign or domestic-sold cartridges or Prebate cartridges. See, e.g., R. 1242 (Trial Tr. 5/30/07 at 37-38) (testimony from Static Control that instructions would enable remanufacture of cartridges, including Prebate); id. at 121-22 (testimony from NER that Static Control did not differentiate between Prebate and non-Prebate at tradeshows). However, Static Control offered testimony that its instructions contained explicit warnings not to use the Static Control chips on Prebate cartridges unless they were first sold in North Carolina after October 1, 2003,16 and not for resale in the United States. See, e.g., J.A. at 657 (Instructions for Replacement Chip). And employees of Static Control were under strict instructions to repeat those conditions to any customer who called to inquire about the microchips. R. 1285 (Trial Tr. 6/6/07 at 88-89). Although Lexmark offered testimony that there was simply no way for a remanufacturer to distinguish between a foreign-sold cartridge and a United States cartridge just by looking at the cartridge, id. at 155, Static Control offered testimony that the remanufacturers could determine origin by inquiring at the time of acquisition, id. at 88. The jury was best situated to weigh the competing evidence and determine whether Static Control had the requisite intent to induce the infringing acts. The evidence offered by Lexmark may have been sufficient to sustain a jury finding of inducement; however, this evidence certainly does not compel such a finding when the jury has rejected it. The excluded question during Static Control’s CEO’s testimony does not change this calculus. Lexmark inflates the significance of the exclusion. Static Control’s CEO was asked if he “ever had an outside patent attorney . . . give you advice on the issue of single-use patent licenses,” to which the CEO responded in the negative. R. 1269 16 North Carolina passed a law in October 2003 that Static Control believed made Prebate restrictions unenforceable in North Carolina. The jury was instructed that these cartridges could not infringe. R. 1365 (Jury Instructions at 19). Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 41 (Trial Tr. 6/4/07 at 94). He was then asked explicitly whether he sought out legal counsel relating to Prebate, and the CEO answered affirmatively that he “sought advice about prebate cartridges that had been either put into the landfill or were on the way to the landfill.” Id. at 95. When asked if that was all he sought advice on, he unequivocally said “Yes.” Id. It was only when counsel later asked specifically whether Static Control sought advice relating to patent or antitrust law that Static Control objected and the district court instructed the witness not to answer. Id. 108-09. And despite this exclusion in the CEO’s testimony, Static Control’s general counsel was asked about and specifically discussed concerns over patent-law issues, including whether or not Static Control’s actions could constitute inducement to infringe. R. 1242 (Trial Tr. 5/30/07 at 249-50, 263-65, 272-73). Lexmark bore the burden of establishing Static Control’s knowledge or willful blindness to the underlying infringing acts. Based on the related evidence already on the record, we cannot conclude that the jury would have reached a different conclusion had the jury been told that Static Control failed to obtain an opinion-of-counsel letter specifically on issues of patent law. The exclusion of this potential evidence was harmless in light of the other elements that Lexmark failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence. See Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Justin Combs Publ’g, 507 F.3d 470, 481 (6th Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 555 U.S. 818 (2008). D. Exhaustion of Prebate Cartridges Lexmark also challenges the district court’s post-trial ruling holding that Lexmark’s sale of Prebate cartridges exhausted its patent rights in their cartridges. The relief Lexmark seeks on this issue, however, is unclear. Whether the Prebate agreement prevented the exhaustion of Lexmark’s patent rights as a matter of law does not change the outcome of the jury trial, because at the time of trial the district court had ruled favorably to Lexmark that Prebate cartridges prevented exhaustion. R. 1008 (D. Ct. Order 4/24/07). Thus, unlike the non-Prebate cartridges sold in the United States and the IBM cartridges, the jury was never instructed that Prebate cartridges could not serve the basis for direct infringement by Static Control’s customers as a class. Nor does the Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 42 question of exhaustion bear in any way on the jury’s verdict that Static Control did not induce the direct infringement by Wazana, Pendl, and NER. We therefore decline to resolve this extremely complex and unsettled question, because it would have no relevance to the outcome of this appeal. E. Design-Patent Invalidity The district court held on summary judgment that two of Lexmark’s design patents relating to the appearance of its toner cartridges—D399,249 and D458,300—were invalid. R. 1008 (D. Ct. Order 4/24/07). Patent invalidity is a defense to a claim for patent infringement. 35 U.S.C. § 282. As a result of this ruling, the issue of whether any party directly infringed Lexmark’s design patents or induced someone else to infringe was never decided. Lexmark appeals, and we affirm. All patents are presumed valid, and the burden of overcoming this presumption rests on the party seeking invalidity. 35 U.S.C. § 282; Campbell v. Spectrum Automation Co., 513 F.2d 932, 935-36 (6th Cir. 1975). Invalidity must be established by clear and convincing evidence. Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. P’ship, 131 S. Ct. 2238, 2243 (2011). Patent validity is a question of law. Schnadig Corp. v. Gaines Mfg. Co., 494 F.2d 383, 387-88 (6th Cir. 1974). However, where legal analysis rests on factual findings, we will not reverse such findings absent clear error. Id. at 388. Design patents are issued to whoever “invents any new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.” 35 U.S.C. § 171; Schnadig, 494 F.2d at 387 (“To be patentable a design must be new, original, ornamental and nonobvious.”). A design patent is not ornamental if the design serves only functional purposes. In other words, “[a] design patent cannot be obtained to protect a mechanical function or cover an article whose configuration affects its utility alone.” Kwik-Site Corp. v. Clear View Mfg. Co., 758 F.2d 167, 171 (6th Cir. 1985) (internal quotation marks and emphasis omitted) (holding design patent for rifle scope mount invalid because configuration served solely functional purposes); Fuji Kogyo Co. v. Pacific Bay Int’l, Inc., 461 F.3d 675, 683 (6th Cir. 2006) (“[I]f the particular design is essential to the use of the article, it can not be the subject of a design patent.”) (internal quotation marks omitted), cert. denied, Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 43 549 U.S. 1252 (2007). An article is less likely to be ornamental if it is not observed, and the Federal Circuit looks not just to whether the article is ever seen but whether the appearance of the article may become a “matter of concern” at any point during the article’s “normal and intended use.” In re Webb, 916 F.2d 1553, 1558 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (holding design of hip implants could be patented because even though not seen during normal use the “design[ was] clearly intended to be noticed during the process of sale.”). The district court held that Lexmark’s design patents were invalid because the design of Lexmark’s toner cartridges was primarily functional and “the appearance of Lexmark’s printer cartridges in question are [sic] of no matter of concern during those cartridges’ entire existence.” R. 1008 (D. Ct. Order 4/24/07 at 10-11). The design of the cartridges was primarily functional because the design of the printer dictated the exact design of the cartridge. Id. at 13-14 (citing Best Lock Corp. v. Ilco Unican Corp., 94 F.3d 1563, 1566 (Fed. Cir. 1996) (holding design of key not patentable because dictated by function, i.e., the design of the corresponding lock)). And even though the cartridges may be seen at some point during their lifetime, at no point was their appearance a matter of concern to the end-user. Id. at 11 (citing In re Stevens, 173 F.2d 1015, 1019-20 (C.C.P.A. 1949)). Lexmark claims that the district court improperly shifted the burden of proof onto Lexmark to show validity and improperly credited disputed issues of fact in Static Control’s favor. Lexmark does not dispute the general proposition that to establish invalidity, the infringer must show “that consumers do not consider [the patented design] to be significant.” Second Appellee Br. at 36 (quoting Int’l Seaway Trading Corp. v. Walgreens Corp., 589 F.3d 1233, 1242 (Fed. Cir. 2009)). Lexmark objects to the lack of survey evidence showing consumers do not consider Lexmark’s cartridge appearance to be a matter of concern and argues that the district court ignored the presence of photographs of the cartridges on the website where the cartridges were sold and on the cartridge boxes. Lexmark argues that this determination is an issue of fact subject to genuine dispute and therefore inappropriate on summary judgment. Nos. 09-6287/6288/6449 Static Control v. Lexmark Int’l Page 44 The district court applied the correct standard and evaluated the undisputed facts offered by Static Control establishing that the design of the cartridges was functional and not ornamental.17 The toner cartridges are visible to users at some points, but are generally hidden from view inside the printer. Their design is dictated solely by the printer with which they are compatible. Lexmark itself explained that the advertisements containing photographs were primarily to assist the customer in selecting the cartridge that was compatible with the printer they owned. R. 506 (Lexmark’s Opp. to Summ. J. at 10). The cartridges’ appearance had no other role in the purchaser’s decision of which cartridge to purchase. “[T]he purpose of the statute is to give encouragement to the decorative arts. It contemplates not so much utility as appearance.” Cavu Clothes, Inc. v. Squires, Inc., 184 F.2d 30, 32 (6th Cir. 1950) (citing Gorham Mfg. Co. v. White, 81 U.S. 511, 524 (1871)). On appeal, Lexmark does not attempt to dispute any of these material facts, arguing instead that Static Control should have presented more evidence, such as consumer surveys, and suggesting that the presence of photographs of the product should be enough to create a dispute over whether appearance matters. Second Appellee Br. at 36-37. Although we make all inferences in favor of Lexmark on this issue, Static Control has demonstrated by undisputed clear and convincing evidence that the design patents were invalid. Lexmark has not pointed to any genuine fact disputes that would undermine this conclusion. We therefore AFFIRM the district court’s holding that Lexmark’s design patents are invalid.