Opinion ID: 3066527
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Insituform III

Text: On remand, the district court determined that Gruppe was not the alter ego of KS and that KS, therefore, was not liable for induced infringement. District Court Opinion, slip op. at 45. Additionally, the district court joined Giulio Catallo in his personal capacity as a defendant, and held him jointly liable for damages. Joinder Order, slip op. at 9. With both the liability and damages trials now concluded, the court awarded damages for infringement of the ‘012 patent by Process 1 under the doctrine of equivalents. District Court Opinion, slip op. at 62. Additionally, the court found CAT and Firstliner’s infringement to be willful and thus enhanced the actual damages award by fifty percent, id. at 55, and awarded Insituform attorney fees, id. at 57. Defendants appealed, raising a number of different issues. These included (1) whether Insituform Netherlands, the new assignee of the ‘012 patent, had been improperly joined as a plaintiff; (2) whether Giulio Catallo, as president of CAT, had been improperly joined as an individual defendant jointly and severally liable for damages; (3) whether the district court had properly assessed damages following our decision in Insituform II; (4) whether the district court had erred in holding that the infringement that was found in the case was willful; and (5) whether the district court had erred in determining the extent to which accused infringers CAT and Firstliner instructed, and therefore induced, their licensees to use the infringing process. For their part, plaintiffs cross-appealed the district court’s ruling that Gruppe was not the alter ego of KS and that KS therefore was not vicariously liable for induced infringement. After oral argument in the appeal, defendants filed motions asking us to apply our holding in Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., Ltd., 234 F.3d 558 (Fed. Cir. 2000) (en banc) (“Festo I”). In Festo I, we ruled that a narrowing amendment to a claim limitation made for a substantial reason related to patentability completely bars the application of the doctrine of equivalents to that amended claim limitation. Id. at 569. Because our Festo I decision represented an intervening change in controlling authority, we revisited our infringement holdings in Insituform I and II. Insituform Techs., Inc. v. Cat Contracting, Inc., 10 Fed. Appx. 871, 877 (Fed. Cir. 2001) (unpublished) (“Insituform III”). After reexamining the prosecution history of the ‘012 patent, we determined that, under Festo I, Insituform had made a narrowing amendment to claim 1 of the ‘012 patent. Insituform III, 10 Fed. Appx. at 879-80. The claim was narrowed, we pointed out, because claim 1 in its original form did not limit the number of cups that could be used to create a vacuum, whereas claim 1 in its amended form was limited to the use of one cup. Id. Accordingly, we held that “Insituform cannot assert any range of equivalents for this claim limitation [and] Process 1, which uses multiple cups, cannot infringe under the doctrine of equivalents, the only finding of infringement affirmed by this court.” Id. at 880. We therefore reversed the district court’s final judgment of liability and damages, and remanded the case with instructions “(i) to vacate all orders entered after the finding of infringement as moot, including those relating to damages and Catallo’s joinder as defendant; and (ii) to dismiss the case as to all parties.” Id. We thus did not address the several remaining issues noted above that originally were on appeal to us in Insituform III. Plaintiffs petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, as did the plaintiff in Festo I.