Court Opinion

ID: 8408201
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-02 16:40:43.935903+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:46:40.543513
License: Public Domain

DYK, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
Although I agree with the majority that we are constrained by our cases to apply regional circuit law here on the issue of collateral estoppel, I write separately to emphasize my view that we should apply our own law to issues of res judicata and collateral estoppel, and to make clear what, in my view, we are not deciding.
I
In an earlier concurrence in Vardon Golf Co. v. Karsten Manufacturing Corp., 294 F.3d 1330 (Fed.Cir.2002), I urged that we should apply our own law to issues of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Id. at 1335-36 (Dyk, J., concurring). At present our jurisprudence on this question is at best confusing. We have held that, as a general matter, the law of the regional circuit applies to issues of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Media Techs. Licensing, LLC v. Upper Deck Co., 334 F.3d 1366, 1369 (Fed.Cir.2003) (res judicata); Bayer AG. v. Biovail Corp., 279 F.3d 1340, 1345 (Fed.Cir.2002) (collateral estoppel); accord RF Del., Inc. v. Pac. Keystone Techs., Inc., 326 F.3d 1255, 1261 (Fed.Cir.2003) (holding that, because it is “a purely procedural issue ... in circumstances such as those presented here,” the law of the regional circuit applies to collateral estop-pel with respect to the effect of a previous judgment); Mars Inc. v. Nippon Conlux Kabushiki-Kaisha, 58 F.3d 616, 618 (Fed.Cir.1995). However, in Foster v. Hallco Manufacturing Co., 947 F.2d 469 (Fed.Cir.1991), we held that the res judicata effect of a consent judgment is governed by our own law because we “perceive[d] a clear need for uniformity and certainty” in the application of res judicata “as applied to a consent decree holding a patent valid and infringed.” Id. at 475. We later characterized that case as an exception because it “was in substance a question of patent *1328law.” Mars Inc., 58 F.3d at 618. We have also held that our own law determines whether a patentee is collaterally estopped from contesting the validity of his patent, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of Illinois Foundation, 402 U.S. 318, 91 S.Ct. 1434, 28 L.Ed.2d 788 (1971). See, e.g., Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. v. Mylan Pharms., Inc., 170 F.3d 1373, 1379-80 (Fed.Cir.1999); Stevenson v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 713 F.2d 705, 709 (Fed.Cir.1983).
There are substantial reasons to apply our own law on all issues of res judicata and collateral estoppel. We have held that “we apply regional circuit law to nonpatent issues” in part “to minimize the incentive for forum-shopping by parties who are in a position to detennine, by their selection of claims, the court to which an appeal will go.” Midwest Indus., Inc. v. Karavan Trailers, Inc., 175 F.3d 1356, 1359 (Fed.Cir.1999) (en banc in relevant part). Applying regional circuit law to issues of res judicata and collateral estoppel, however, simply encourages forum shopping. Res judicata and collateral estoppel may be outcome determinative, so there is a strong incentive to select a favorable forum. Vardon Golf, 294 F.3d at 1336 (Dyk, J., concurring). As I noted in Vardon Golf “[tjhere is simply no reason why an earlier patent judgment should have one consequence in the Third Circuit and another in the Seventh Circuit, for example. Such an approach encourages the very forum shopping that our regional circuit law approach was designed to prevent.” Id.
I express no view here as to whether, applying our own law, we should adopt the Eleventh Circuit rule or the stricter final judgment rule apparently adopted by the Fifth Circuit. See Maj. Op., ante, 1324-1325.
II
I also write separately to emphasize that our decision today does not determine that the parties to a district court settlement agreement lack a mechanism to prevent interim decisions in that litigation from having collateral estoppel effects in future third party litigation. That goal could perhaps be accomplished by moving to vacate the district court’s earlier decision as part of the settlement. The Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, 513 U.S. 18, 115 S.Ct. 386, 130 L.Ed.2d 233 (1994), held only that such a vacatur was inappropriate by the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals on review of a final district court decision. Id. at 28-29. Bancorp did not, however, address the power of the district court to vacate non-final orders pursuant to a settlement agreement. Indeed, by its terms, Bancorp does not apply to district courts but rather only to the Supreme Court and to courts of appeals. See id. at 19, 28, 115 S.Ct. 386; Valero Terrestrial Corp. v. Paige, 211 F.3d 112, 117-21 (4th Cir.2000) (concluding, however, that the same analysis should be conducted with respect to district court Rule 60(b) motions); cf. Phonometrics, Inc. v. N. Telecom Inc., 133 F.3d 1459, 1468 (Fed.Cir.1998) (holding that Cardinal Chemical Co. v. Morton International, Inc., 508 U.S. 83, 113 S.Ct. 1967, 124 L.Ed.2d 1 (1993), which prohibits the Federal Circuit from vacating a judgment of invalidity when we have found the patent not to have been infringed, does not prohibit a district court from dismissing a counterclaim of invalidity when it has found no infringement). However, no effort was made here to vacate the earlier district court order.
Alternatively, the parties might agree as part of the settlement that the earlier decision would have no res judicata or collateral estoppel effect, as they appear to have *1329attempted to do in this case. See Foster v. Hallco Mfg. Co., 947 F.2d at 480-81; Hartley v. Mentor Corp., 869 F.2d 1469, 1472 (Fed.Cir.1989) (suggesting that the preclu-sive effect of earlier interlocutory orders is to be determined by interpreting the settlement agreement). It can be argued that the “strong public interest in settlement of patent litigation,” Foster, 947 F.2d at 477, would be served by allowing the parties to a settlement at the district court level to determine the collateral estoppel effect of earlier orders in the litigation. However, I do not read appellant’s opening brief in this case as having raised this issue, and the majority quite properly refrains from addressing it.