Court Opinion

ID: 9499470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:49:00.32768+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:31.090462
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent, for the question here presented is not related to federalism and the federal/state relationship, or to pendent jurisdiction of state law issues; nor are disputes about foreign patents so unique as to call up the other theories collected by the panel majority to support this ousting of United States parties from access to United States courts. The certified question is concerned solely with the authority of a United States court, having personal jurisdiction of the parties, to exercise its discretion to accept the amended complaint concerning the foreign patents corresponding to the United States patent *906in suit.1
A foreign country is not a “state” in the constitutional context, and the judicial application of foreign law plays no role in the jurisdictional balance represented by federalism. The rules governing federal jurisdiction of supplemental state claims are irrelevant to whether a United States court has the authority and can exercise its discretion to decide questions that require the application of foreign law. Courts in the United States have always had the authority to decide questions that require application of foreign law. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 44.1 (“Determination of Foreign Law”) provides procedural guidance. In Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 117 S.Ct. 2365, 138 L.Ed.2d 914 (1997) the Court, comparing the judicial and other branches of government, remarked that courts “applied the law of other sovereigns all the time.” Id. at 907, 117 S.Ct. 2365. Yet the panel majority holds that a United States court cannot do so, in its sound discretion, when the issue concerns patents. Thus this court rules that the district court is precluded from considering the issues concerning the four foreign counterparts of the United States patent that is in suit between these parties.
The district court had agreed to receive the amended complaint. Our role, at this pleading stage, is to determine whether that action is supportable. My colleagues hold that the district court abused its discretion in exercising supplemental jurisdiction of the foreign patent issues, indeed holding that the district court has no discretion to accept this amended complaint because it involves foreign patents. I cannot agree. It is inappropriate for the Federal Circuit to create this unique exception to the authority of American courts to resolve controversies that require the application of foreign law.
Access of a nation’s citizenry to dispute resolution in the nation’s courts is fundamental to a nation ruled by law. This court’s new rule carves an inapt exception into judicial authority, judicial obligation, and judicial discretion. Such special treatment of patent issues is flawed as a matter of precedent, procedure, and policy.

Courts Routinely Apply Foreign Law

Precedent illustrates myriad situations in which the courts have determined and applied foreign law, and also illustrates those few situations in which a court has declined to resolve a specific foreign-based issue. Today’s extreme barrier to exercise of the district court’s discretion when foreign patents are involved stands alone among the vast variety of causes in which such determinations have been made.
United States courts have determined and applied foreign commercial law, foreign property law, foreign inheritance law, foreign citizenship law, foreign copyright law, foreign trademark law, foreign liability and negligence law, and other foreign law as appropriate to resolution of the dispute between the parties before the court. The principle is that a court should apply the same law that would be applied *907in the nation where the event occurred, or the law having the most significant relationship to the event in dispute. For example, in Smith v. Condry, 42 U.S. (1 How.) 28, 11 L.Ed. 35 (1843), concerning liability for a collision between American vessels in the port of Liverpool, the Court held that the British statutes should be applied to determine fault, and that liability and damages should be decided under British law. In Nashua Savings Bank v. Anglo-American Land, Mortgage & Agency Co., 189 U.S. 221, 230, 23 S.Ct. 517, 47 L.Ed. 782 (1903) the Court discussed various methods of proving foreign law, then viewed as a question of fact, in an action by an English corporation to recover an assessment on its capital stock; the Court explained that: “By subscribing to stock in a foreign corporation, defendant subjects itself to the laws of such foreign country in respect to the powers and obligations of such corporation.” In Uebersee Finanz-Korporation, A.G. v. McGrath, 343 U.S. 205, 72 S.Ct. 618, 96 L.Ed. 888 (1952) the Court held that it was appropriate to determine property ownership of a usufruc-tuary under German law, predicate to application of the Trading with the Enemy Act.
A sampling of recent cases yields further illustration of judicial authority and dispute-resolution obligation when foreign law is involved: In Cambridge Literary Properties, Ltd. v. W. Goebel Porzellanfabrik G.m.b.H. & Co., 295 F.3d 59 (1 st Cir.2002) the court observed that the district court may apply United States copyright law, German contract law, and Austrian inheritance law, to resolve all of the issues in the case. In Abogados v. AT & T, Inc., 223 F.3d 932 (9th Cir.2000) the court applied California choice of law analysis to hold that the law of Jalisco, Mexico should be applied by the district court to an issue of tortious interference with a contract made in Mexico between the Mexican plaintiffs and the Mexican subsidiary of AT & T. In Tschira v. Willingham, 135 F.3d 1077 (6th Cir.1998) the court applied German law to decide whether a letter created a fiduciary duty, and then applied Tennessee law to a fraudulent misrepresentation concerning property in Tennessee. In Curley v. AMR Corp., 153 F.3d 5, 12 (2nd Cir.1998) the court compared the laws of Mexico and New York as to various torts including false imprisonment and negligence, and stated its “agreement with the concept that appellate courts, as well as trial courts, may find and apply foreign law”; the court held that foreign law should be applied to the acts that occurred in Mexico unless “violative of fundamental notions of justice and prevailing concepts of good morals.” See generally 9 Charles Alan Wright and Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure §§ 2444-446 at 644-58 (2d ed.1995) (discussing application of foreign law in federal courts).
In Dorman v. Emerson Electric Co., 23 F.3d 1354 (8th Cir.1994) the court applied the “most significant relationship” test to determine that Canadian law applied to a personal injury claim against a product that was designed in Missouri, manufactured in Taiwan, and sold and used in Canada. In Indasu Int’l, C.A., v. Citibank, N.A., 861 F.2d 375, 379 (2nd Cir.1988) the court determined the applicable Ecuadorian law of contracts and guaranty, then applied that law to the obligation between the United States guarantor and a Panamanian corporation as to a contract to be performed in Ecuadorian waters. In Mathews v. ABC Television, Inc., 776 F.Supp. 821 (S.D.N.Y.1991) a Kenyan filmmaker sued ABC Television in New York for injuries by a rhinoceros in Kenya, alleging that an ABC employee’s reckless conduct caused the attack; the district court applied the Kenyan comparative negligence law and case law of the East Afri*908can Court of Appeals. In In re Houbi-gant, Inc., 914 F.Supp. 964 (S.D.N.Y.1995) the district court applied various provisions of the Canadian Trade-Marks Act, and also applied the laws of the Province of Quebec and the State of New York to the interpretation of a licensing arrangement. In Armstrong v. Virgin Records, Ltd., 91 F.Supp.2d 628 (S.D.N.Y.2000) the district court exercised jurisdiction of the United States and foreign copyright claims, stating that “there is no principled reason to bar, in absolute fashion, copyright claims brought under foreign law for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,” and that “subject matter jurisdiction over any claims properly arising under United States copyright law, potentially allowing the Court to exercise pendent jurisdiction over claims arising under foreign law.” Id. at 637.
As for cases involving foreign patents, in Ortman v. Stanray, 371 F.2d 154 (7th Cir.1967) the court approved the exercise of supplemental jurisdiction of counts concerning the corresponding Canadian, Brazilian, and Mexican patents. In Mars, Inc. v. Kabushiki-Kaisha Nippon Conlux, 24 F.3d 1368 (Fed.Cir.1994), this court declined to decide the Japanese patent issues, explaining that the accused devices, the scope and class of the claims, and the charges of infringement were different in Japan and the United States. In Medigene AG v. Loyola Univ. of Chicago, No. 98 C 2026, 2001 WL 1636916 (N.D.Ill. Dec.19, 2001) the district court declined to dismiss the issue of inventorship of foreign patent applications, stating that “[Mars'] makes clear that in appropriate circumstances Section 1367 permits exercise of supplemental jurisdiction over a claim for infringement of a foreign patent.” Id. at *1. In Forbo-Giubiasco S.A. v. Congoleum Corp., 516 F.Supp. 1210 (S.D.N.Y.1981), the court observed that “[a] finding against Congoleum on this point [inequitable conduct in obtaining the foreign patents] would affect only the rights between Con-goleum and Giubiasco, not Congoleum’s foreign patent rights generally.” Id. at 1218. In Distillers Co. v. Standard Oil Co., 150 USPQ 42 (N.D.Ohio 1964), in a dispute involving various patents on the manufacture of acrylonitrile, the court stated that “It cannot be doubted, nor does the plaintiff question, that this Court is empowered to consider claims arising under foreign patents.” Id. (citing Aluminum Co. of Am. v. Sperry Products, Inc., 285 F.2d 911 (6th Cir.1960) and Nat’l Latex Products Co. v. Sun Rubber Co., 274 F.2d 224 (6th Cir.1960)).
In no case did the court hold that it had no power or authority to receive the foreign issue, reciting various reasons in a few situations where the court declined the foreign issue. An example is Bonzel v. Pfizer, Inc., 439 F.3d 1358 (Fed.Cir.2006), where this court sustained the district court’s discretion in dismissing, on the ground of forum non conveniens, an action that required application of German contract law to interpret a patent license agreement that was made in Germany between a German national and the Swiss subsidiary of a United States company. Other cases are: Vanity Fair Mills, Inc. v. T. Eaton Co., 234 F.2d 633, 645 (2nd Cir.1956) (“the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to exercise its jurisdiction over that portion of the case arising in Canada and governed by Canadian trade-mark law”); Torah Soft Ltd. v. Drosnin, 136 F.Supp.2d 276 (S.D.N.Y.2001) (district court declined to exercise jurisdiction over foreign copyright claims because the United States copyright claim had been dismissed); Berkshire Furniture Co. v. Glattstein, 921 F.Supp. 1559, 1562 (W.D.Ky.1995) (district court stated that on principles of international comity it was “disinclined to decide issues related to the *909designs that arise under U.K. and Malaysian law”); Packard Instrument Co. v. Beckman Instruments, Inc., 346 F.Supp. 408 (N.D.Ill.1972) (district court declined to resolve patent infringement in nine foreign countries, stating that the patentee could obtain effective relief by enforcement of its United States patent). In none of these cases was there any assertion of judicial incapacity to resolve the foreign issues, or of any prohibition on the exercise of discretion to accept the case.
The district court herein, in exercising its discretion to accept the Voda amended complaint, explained that the factual situation in Ortman, supra, was more akin to this case than the factual situation in Mars, supra. In Ortman the court had accepted the foreign patent issues, stating that “all of the actions of defendant of which complaint is made are the result of defendant doing similar acts both in and out of the United States,” 371 F.2d at 158, whereas in Mars, citing the differences in the patents and the products this court held that the Japanese issues would more appropriately be resolved by a Japanese court. In contrast to the case-specific analyses in precedent, my colleagues now hold that it would always be an abuse of discretion for the district court to decide foreign patent issues, unless some sort of new treaty is produced. However, it is inappropriate to compel the district court to decline the adjudicative authority available in all other areas of law.
In explaining this unique inroad on discretion when foreign patents are involved, my colleagues rely heavily on the criteria of supplemental jurisdiction as codified in 28 U.S.C. § 1367. However, judicial authority to determine and apply foreign law does not require that the foreign issue is supplemental to a domestic issue. Further, even if the criteria of § 1367 are applied they support, rather than negate, the district court’s decision herein.
Judicial authority to decide questions of foreign law is not a matter of the federal/state relationship codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1367. Nonetheless, the elaboration in United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966) concerning federal supplemental jurisdiction of state law causes that have “a common nucleus of operative fact” is a useful analogy to the Voda/Cordis situation, for the “considerations of judicial economy, convenience and fairness to litigants” that are served by supplemental jurisdiction, 383 U.S. at 726, 86 S.Ct. 1130, are relevant to considerations of the exercise of judicial discretion. If these criteria are applied they reinforce, rather than negate, the district court’s exercise of discretion to accept Voda’s amended complaint.
The principles of supplemental jurisdiction as applied to federal/state issues, 28 U.S.C. § 1367, weigh on the side of the exercise of jurisdiction absent compelling reason:
§ 1367(a). Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) or as expressly provided otherwise by Federal statute, in any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction, the district courts shall have supplemental jurisdiction over all other claims that are so related to claims within such original jurisdiction that they form part of the same case or controversy under Article III of the United States Constitution ....
A district court may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over such a related claim:
§ 1367(c). The district courts may decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over a claim under subsection (a) if—
*910(1) the claim raises a novel or complex issue of State law,
(2) the claim substantially predominates over the claim or claims over which the district court has original jurisdiction,
(3) the district court has dismissed all claims over which it has original jurisdiction, or
(4) in exceptional circumstances, there are other compelling reasons for declining jurisdiction.
(All emphases added). Although my colleagues fault the district court for “not making a Section 1367(c) analysis,” this is an inapt criticism, for the district court did not decline jurisdiction by invoking § 1367(c); instead, the court applied the principle of § 1367(a) and accepted the claim, exercising its authority and recognizing its dispute-resolution obligation. Indeed, in Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Services, Inc., 545 U.S. 546, 125 S.Ct. 2611, 2620, 162 L.Ed.2d 502 (2005) the Court counseled against unduly narrowing the application of § 1367(a). The Federal Circuit in Mars applied the principles of § 1367(c) and held that the Japanese patent issues should be litigated in Japan because the “common nucleus of operative fact” required by Gibbs was not present, but this court also stated that § 1367(c) “reaffirms that the exercise of supplemental jurisdiction is within the discretion of the district court.” 24 F.3d at 1374.
The court’s ruling today essentially eliminates this discretionary option in foreign patent cases; the court makes no mention of the common nucleus of operative facts among Voda’s United States and foreign patent issues, and does not review the district court’s ruling on the ground of abuse of discretion. In eBay Inc. v. MercExchange L.L.C., — U.S.-, 126 S.Ct. 1837, 164 L.Ed.2d 641 (2006) the Court discouraged the carving out of an exception uniquely for patent cases, and required that the equitable discretion of the district court be as available in patent cases as in other cases. The panel majority strays from precedent, policy, and prudence, in ruling that the discretionary authority of the district court cannot or should not be exercised to resolve foreign patent disputes between parties properly before the court. My colleagues’ reliance on the rules of supplemental jurisdiction does not support their restraint on this exercise of discretion.
I respond to the several other justifications offered in the majority opinion, for they also are flawed:

The Facts as Pled Support the District Court’s Action

The district court followed the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Ortman, the closest precedent. The commonality of issues in the five countries of the Voda patents, including the United States, was before the district court. The accused catheter is the same in all five countries; it is manufactured by Cordis Corporation in a single plant, initially at Miami Lakes, Florida and now in Mexico. Cordis manages the Mexican plant and arranges for shipment to the Cordis companies in the five countries where infringement is charged, viz., Cordis Corporation (US), Cordis S.A. (France), Cordis G.m.b.H (Germany), Cordis UK Limited, and Cordis in Canada. All of the Cordis companies are related to the Johnson & Johnson Company.
The patents in the five countries show that they are of common origin. A PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) application, based on the United States application, was filed in the Canadian and European Patent Offices. All of the patents have identical drawings, and the specifications are the same with additional text in the United States. The European patent application was filed and prosecuted in En*911glish, and the French and German patents are translations of the European patent. The British, French, and German patents have the specification and claims of the European patent grant.2
Cordis says in its brief that there are differences among the patents, although no details were provided and differences are not apparent. But accepting this statement, I doubt that any differences are beyond the understanding of a United States court, with appropriate explanation if needed. Cordis also says that it intends to challenge the validity of all of the patents based on a reference that was not cited in any examination; it is not explained why a new reference cannot be considered as to not only the United States patent, but the foreign patents.
My colleagues, supporting their ruling that the district court should not and can not in its discretion accept cases that raise issues of foreign patent validity and infringement, state that “more judicial resources could be consumed by the district court than the courts of the foreign patent grants.” Maj. Op. at 903. This reason is unsupported by the pleaded facts. Nor should a court ignore the consumption of private as well as judicial resources in duplicative litigation between the same parties in five countries, in three languages, with five sets of lawyers and the other trappings and burdens of trial.
My colleagues unfairly criticize the district court for not making any findings regarding the differences between the domestic and foreign patents, and equally unfairly criticize the absence of expert analysis of the foreign patent laws. It is surely inappropriate to criticize the judge for not making findings or taking evidence at the pleading stage. On a motion to amend the pleadings the court shall accept the well-pled allegations, Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), and indeed no challenge to the premises has been presented.
Discretionary authority is of broad scope, as is the judicial obligation to resolve disputes between litigants who are properly before the court. The district court’s action reflects the “balance of conveniences,” Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno, 454 U.S. 235, 255 n. 23, 102 S.Ct. 252, 70 L.Ed.2d 419 (1981), for the court could have considered the convenience to Dr. Voda, a citizen of Oklahoma, and balanced it against the convenience of multiple litigation in foreign countries. Cordis does not argue that it would be more “convenient” for it to litigate in five countries instead of one.
Although a district court may decline to exercise its jurisdiction when it appears that the convenience of the parties and the court and the interests of justice are such that the action should be tried in another forum, id. at 249-50, 102 S.Ct. 252, this determination is committed to the sound discretion of the district court. See, e.g., Leetsch v. Freedman, 260 F.3d 1100, 1102-03 (9th Cir.2001) (“When we review a forum non conveniens determination, we give less deference to a foreign plaintiffs choice of a United States forum than to a domestic plaintiffs choice” and “[wjhether to dismiss an action on forum non conve-niens grounds require the district court to consider the availability of an adequate alternative forum, and then to consider whether several ‘private’ and ‘public’ interest factors favors dismissal.”). Cordis has the burden of persuasion that the district court abused its discretion in choosing to *912receive the amended complaint. Our appellate role is to determine whether Cordis has met this burden and has shown that the district court’s exercise of discretion is not sustainable in this case; it is an improper appellate ruling to remove that discretion.
Complexity of Law or Fact
I turn to the matter of complexity, for this aspect is also pressed in the panel majority’s reasoning. My colleagues propose that in view of the complexities that may arise in connection with foreign patents, United States courts should not or can not exercise their discretion to enter the arena. Such a sweeping elimination of judicial authority contravenes the fundamentals of judicial responsibility, for judges cannot avoid cases because they may be complex. The complexity of patent law does not evict the district court from its discretionary authority.
My colleagues appear to believe that each nation’s patent on Dr. Voda’s invention covers a different scope of subject matter. The proposition that the scope of counterpart patents, particularly those having identical claims, will usually vary significantly will come as a surprise and shock to the holders of literally millions of counterpart patents. In this case all five patents are of common origin and text, and the patents in Great Britain, France, and Germany are identical as granted by the European Patent Office. It is well recognized that most inventions receive consistent protection under the patent laws of the major industrial nations. The few areas of difference are well understood by practitioners.3 The international structure of patent laws, patent practitioners, and patent treaties, is bottomed on this commercial premise. International business depends on this expectation and reality.
There is no assertion that the Voda catheter is so complicated as to test the nuances of comprehension and law. The panel majority states that its concern about “construing” different claims or even the same claims in different countries, and that expert testimony might be required. Expert testimony is not unusual in patent litigation, and experts on the meaning and scope of the claims in these countries are undoubtedly available if needed. See Fed. R.Civ.P. 44.1.4
“The parties, therefore, carry the burden of proving foreign law; where they do not do so, we ‘will ordinarily apply the forum’s law.’ ” Ferrostaal, Inc. v. M/V Sea Phoenix, 447 F.3d 212, 216 (3rd Cir.2006) (quoting Bel-Ray v. Chemrite Ltd,., 181 F.3d 435, 440 (3d Cir.1999)); Banco de Crédito Industrial, S.A. v. Tesorería Gen., 990 F.2d 827, 836 (5th Cir.1993) (analyzing Spanish and French law and holding that “[wjhen the parties have failed to conclusively establish foreign law, a court is entitled to look to its own forum’s law in order to fill in any gaps.”).
We do not know whether the accused Cordis device is a simple copy of the Voda invention or whether it embodies significant changes; that is, we do not know whether claim “construction,” under any *913law, will be necessary. As for foreign languages, about which my colleagues also express concern, the Canadian and British patents are in English, as is the European patent of which the German and French patents are translations. The prosecution history in the European Patent Office is in English, as of course in Canada and the United States. It surely is not apparent that multiple litigation of the same issues in five countries and three languages is likely to be more economical of judicial time and litigation expense, and more likely to achieve a correct and just result, than resolving all of the issues before one judge in one case and one language. This aspect cannot serve to negate the district court’s exercise of discretion to receive these issues.
My colleagues also express concern about “jury confusion” when proving infringement of patents written in other languages and under foreign law. I take note that the Uniform Interstate and International Procedure Act, Article IV § 4.03, states that “the court, not the jury, shall determine foreign law.” See also Fed. R.Civ.P. 44.1. It need not be ignored that the extent to which the question of infringement is presented to a jury is diminished in the United States since the advent of the Markman practice; and whether a corresponding foreign question under the laws of a country that does not have a jury system would avoid any Seventh Amendment obligation is not here at issue.
The panel majority also states its concern that issues of foreign patents may not be correctly decided by a United States court. Undoubtedly this concern fits all of the areas in which courts have applied foreign law, and could be a factor in a district court’s determination of whether to exercise jurisdiction in a particular case. However, such a discretionary determination is quite different from the panel majority’s ruling that discretion should not be exercised to accept and decide foreign patent issues.
My colleagues propose that permitting exercise of the district court’s discretion to accept jurisdiction “could be fundamentally unfair to the alleged infringer.” Indeed, fairness is an important aspect of discretionary rulings, and fairness to both sides must be considered. The panel majority does not explain its apparent balance of fairness in its holding that the alleged infringer is always more disadvantaged and can only be sued in the situs of the infringement. Such considerations would have evicted American courts in many areas of law, as in the representative cases cited earlier in this opinion. This concern does not warrant treating patent cases differently from all other causes of action.
In this case, the district court was willing to take on the foreign issues. Perhaps the district court gave weight to the fact that the United States patent was being litigated anyway, on the same grounds and against the same device that is at issue in all five countries. Perhaps the court gave weight to equitable considerations, for they are always relevant to judicial discretion. None of the aspects here raised supports departing from the authority of courts to resolve disputes between parties that are properly before them, whether or not foreign law is involved. The fundamental question now presented is whether a district court will be permitted to retain its judicial authority, or will this specific area be uniquely limited, whatever the position of the district court as to its discretion and its obligation.

The Local Action Doctrine

My colleagues also refer to the “local action” doctrine as barring the district court’s jurisdiction of foreign patent issues. This “doctrine” arose in United States jurisprudence in the early days of the Re*914public, clarifying the jurisdiction of the state courts with respect to each other. In Livingston v. Jefferson, 15 F. Cas. 660 (C.C.D.Va.1811), the court recognized the common law concept of local action and established that an action involving real property can be brought only within the state of the United States where the land is located. Such rulings have no relation to whether a United States court can resolve a dispute between persons personally before the tribunal by applying the law of a foreign country, whatever the issue. See generally 14D Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction and Related Matters 2d § 3822, at 451-54 (2007). It is obscure how this “doctrine” supports my colleagues’ ruling that a United States court cannot resolve disputes that raise questions of foreign patent law.

The Act of State Doctrine

The panel majority also invokes the “Act of State” doctrine as justification for barring the district court from choosing to decide the issues of Voda’s foreign patents. The theory appears to be that the grant of a foreign patent is a governmental act of state, and thereby untouchable by a United States court. Thus the panel majority proposes that the district court’s discretionary act would “prejudice the rights of other governments” to decide the validity and enforceability of their patents. That proposition is unsupported. In Mannington Mills, Inc. v. Congoleum Corp., 595 F.2d 1287, 1293-94 (3rd Cir.1979) the court rejected the theory that “the mere issuance of patents by a foreign power constitutes either an act of state, as that term has developed under case law, or an example of governments’ compulsion.” In Forbo-Giubiasco, 516 F.Supp. at 1217 the court explained that “it cannot be said that a determination by an American court that a private company failed to present relevant information to a foreign patent office could interfere with our government’s conduct of foreign affairs.”
In Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 84 S.Ct. 923, 11 L.Ed.2d 804 (1964) the Court explained that “[t]he act of state doctrine in its traditional formulation precludes the courts of this country from inquiring into the validity of the public acts a recognized foreign sovereign power committed within its own territory,” and that the doctrine precludes judicial determination of the legality of acts of foreign states within their own territories which might embarrass the executive department in its conduct of foreign affairs. Id. at 427-49, 84 S.Ct. 923. Not every governmental action is an act of state, and not every ministerial activity carries the political and international implications of that usage.
Whether a particular governmental action is properly viewed as an act of state has been explained in a variety of contexts; the common thread is whether the issue is one that is normally consigned to the executive branches, such that an international dispute is resolved by political negotiations between diplomats; or whether the issue is more suitable to the individual review that is given to litigants in judicial proceedings dealing with specific facts. See generally 12 A.L.R. Fed. 707 (1972) (“Modern Status of the Act of State Doctrine”). The fundamental criterion is whether the governmental action is a significant public act or whether it is a ministerial function, accompanied by whether the proposed judicial review is directed to the public interests of the nation as served by the governmental act, or is a private effort to enforce a private claim.
Clearly, the grant of a patent is not an Act of State, whether done by the United States or by a foreign country. No support has been offered for so creative an *915application of international law; this “doctrine” provides no support for this court’s removal of judicial discretion of United States courts to resolve a commercial dispute between private parties involving private patent rights. The Act of State doctrine is not relevant to judicial review of the Voda foreign patents; patent validity and infringement are legal and commercial issues, not acts of state. This doctrine does not create an exception that excludes foreign patents from access to dispute resolution in our courts.

Enforcement Is Not An Issue

There is no issue raised by either party concerning enforcement by a foreign court of the district court’s potential decision concerning any of the Yoda foreign patents. This case does not raise issues of comity, treaty, and diplomacy, when judgments are sought to be enforced in another country. The complexities of enforcement of foreign judgments, at which my colleagues hint, indeed serve to protect litigants from abusive procedures, and under the various protocols and treaties that relate to foreign judgments, a foreign court can refuse to accept a decision of another nation’s tribunal. See Laker Airways Ltd. v. Sabena, Belgian World Airlines, 731 F.2d 909, 937-38 (D.C.Cir.1984) (“No nation is under an unremitting obligation to enforce foreign interests which are fundamentally prejudicial to those of the domestic forum.”); Motorola Credit Corp. v. Uzan, 388 F.3d 39, 60 (2d Cir.2004) (“orders of foreign courts are not entitled to comity if the litigants who procure them have ‘deliberately courted legal impediments’ to the enforcement of a federal court’s orders”) (citation omitted); Finanz AG Zurich v. Banco Economico S.A., 192 F.3d 240, 246 (2d Cir.1999) (judicial proceedings may receive comity to the extent that the “foreign court had proper jurisdiction and enforcement does not prejudice rights of United States citizens or violate domestic public policy”). See generally Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law of the United States §§ 481-82 (1987) (recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and grounds for non-recognition of such judgments).
The enforcement aspect was not raised by either party. The district court may have recognized that both Dr. Voda and Cordis Corporation, the manufacturer for all five countries, are within the district court’s personal jurisdiction. In Forbo-Giubiasco, stipra, the court explained that its findings with respect to the foreign patents were directed to the obligations of the parties to each other, and not to whether or how a foreign tribunal would view the decision.
The issues and relationships herein reinforce the district court’s exercise of discretion to accept the amended complaint, and further impugns this court’s withdrawal of the district court’s discretion as to foreign patents. There is no sound reason why speculative concerns of enforcement in foreign countries warrant depriving the district court of its discretion to resolve this dispute between these United States parties. While we do not know the extent to which the district court might find liability and impose constraints in this case, the answer to this dispute is not to bar the court from hearing it.

The Role of Patent Treaties

The panel majority proposes that it would violate the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization, if the United States were to consider the validity and infringement of Dr. Voda’s foreign patents. None of these treaties prohibits resolution by a national court of private disputes that include foreign patent rights. The question is not as present*916ed by the panel majority, whether any treaty imposes “an international duty” on a nation’s courts to render decision concerning foreign patents. The question is whether any treaty prohibits a national court from resolving a dispute between entities under the personal jurisdiction of the court. No treaty bars such dispute resolution.

Dispute Resolution is an Obligation of Courts

The ruling of the panel majority departs not only from judicial precedent, but from judicial obligation. Although the court appears to concede that the district court may have “jurisdiction” to resolve the foreign aspects of this dispute, my colleagues hold that this authority cannot be exercised to resolve this dispute. This holding contravenes the judicial role. The district court has both the power and the obligation to resolve the dispute between the parties. See Cheney v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 542 U.S. 367, 370,124 S.Ct. 2576, 159 L.Ed.2d 459 (2004) (referring to the district court’s constitutional responsibility to resolve cases and controversies within its jurisdiction); Kirkpatrick & Co. v. Envt’l Tectonics Corp. Int’l, 493 U.S. 400, 409, 110 S.Ct. 701, 107 L.Ed.2d 816 (1990) (“Courts in the United States have the power, and ordinarily the obligation, to decide cases and controversies properly presented to them.”).
The majority postulates that discretion perhaps could be exercised “especially if circumstances change, such as if the United States were to enter into a new international patent treaty or if events during litigation alter a district court’s conclusion regarding comity, judicial economy, convenience, or fairness.” This is at best a confusing wrap-up to this important question, for no new international treaty is at hand, and the proposal that events during litigation may change the conclusion is not helpful, for the question is whether this litigation will be conducted at all.
The question here is simply whether, in a dispute between United States entities of whom the district court has personal jurisdiction, does the court have discretion to resolve aspects that concern foreign patents. The panel majority’s conclusion that the court cannot exercise its discretion to do so is contrary to principle, practice, and judicial obligation.

Comity, Harmonization, and the Future

Comity is a complex concept of international law, and its generalization to evict United States courts from their dispute-resolution obligation is not supported on any theory of comity. See Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 164, 16 S.Ct. 139, 40 L.Ed. 95 (1895) (defining comity as “neither of absolute obligation ... nor of mere courtesy and good will” but “the recognition which one nation allows within its territory to the legislative, executive or judicial acts of another nation, having due regard both the international duty and convenience, and to the rights of its own citizens ... who are under the protection of its laws.”). Comity has no relevance to the need to apply foreign law and the obligation and authority to meet that need. In Piper Aircraft, 454 U.S. at 260 n. 29, 102 S.Ct. 252, the Court observed that “[t]he need to apply foreign law ... alone is not sufficient to warrant dismissal when a balancing of all relevant factors shows that the plaintiffs chosen forum is appropriate.”
The panel majority raises the specter that foreign courts might adjudicate United States patent rights, proposing that if our courts are permitted to decide questions under foreign patent law, other countries will feel free to decide questions of United States patent law. Cordis too sounds the alarm, stating that creative litigants will choose exotic foreign forums to *917resolve complex patent issues, and that the district court’s decision will open the door to international chaos. I doubt that a United States district court is an exotic foreign forum; and it is not new for courts in other countries to apply the law of other nations when warranted. Courts in other countries have not refrained from applying foreign patent law, including United States law. A Japanese court recently applied the United States doctrine of equivalents in a suit between Japanese companies that included questions of infringement of United States patents, in K.K. Coral Corp. v. Marine Bio K.K., Case No.1943(wa)/2002 (Tokyo District Court, Oct. 16, 2003). All nations have recognized their obligation to provide a judicial forum to address disputes involving their citizens; no warrant has been shown to remove foreign patents from this purview.
Proponents of patent “harmonization” point to the similarity of the policies that underlie patent law of all industrialized nations, and stress that for most technologies the same scope of practical protection is available to industrial development in all nations. It would be anomalous indeed for the United States now to rule that the courts cannot understand patent principles as applied in other nations.
Preclusion and prejudgment are inappropriate and unnecessary. From my colleagues’ extreme limitation and bar on the district court’s exercise of discretion to receive and resolve foreign patent issues, I respectfully dissent.

. Contrary to the statements of the panel majority, my position is not that the district court has or needs personal jurisdiction of Cordis' foreign subsidiaries; my premise is that the district court has authority and power to provide Voda with the requested relief through Cordis US, the manufacturer and provider of the accused catheters for all five countries. Further, both the Bonzel and Mars cases, flagged by the majority, were discretionary decisions. In Bonzel the contract was made in a foreign country between foreign nationals under foreign law, and was declined on the discretionary ground of forum non conve-niens. In Mars the count against a Japanese company was declined on the discretionary ground that the kinds of patents and the structure of the devices differed significantly between the United States and Japan.

. As for the majority’s challenge to our knowledge of the content of the foreign-language patents, the record contains all five patents, and states, without challenge, that the German and French patents are translations of the European patent (the French patent is headed "Traduction de Brevet Euro-peen”).

. Voda's catheter is a mechanical device, and does not raise new policy issues based on evolving areas of technology, such as the role of patents on computer software or genetic products.

. Rule 44.1. Determination of Foreign Law. A party who intends to raise an issue concerning the law of a foreign country shall give notice by pleadings or other reasonable written notice. The court, in determining foreign law, may consider any relevant material or source, including testimony, whether or not submitted by a party or admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence. The court's determination shall be treated as a ruling on a question of law.