Court Opinion

ID: 9491216
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:07:17.529623+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:35.488087
License: Public Domain

RADER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join this vacatur of summary judgment. I write separately to emphasize that, despite the broad language in Wanlass v. General Electric Co., 148 F.3d 1334 (Fed.Cir.1998), a patentee is not subject to a broad duty to test all potentially infringing goods.
In General Electric, this court imposed upon patentees a broad duty to test products which might embody their patented technology. I join this opinion to the extent that it explains that the duty created in General Electric is not as sweeping as the language of that opinion suggests. Indeed, I continue to believe that a patentee only has a duty to test products that the reasonable person would suspect infringe the patent. See General Electric, 148 F.3d at 1340-41 (Rader, J. dissenting). To the extent that this opinion tries to reconcile its reasoning and result with the sweeping duty imposed by General Electric, I cannot agree.
Unfortunately, patentees, potential infring-ers, and courts will have difficulty applying the laches doctrine in light of this opinion and General Electric. In this opinion, this court notes that Wanlass and General Electric had engaged in some negotiations over the patented technology. At the end of these exchanges, General Electric declined Wan-lass’s offer of a license under the ’135 patent, stating that the claimed technology was old and that General Electric already used it. As this court notes, Wanlass at that point was “on notice that GE was a potential in-fringer.” However, this court overlooks that Wanlass acted on that notice. Wanlass then tested GE’s products and found that, contrary to its statements, General Electric was not using the patented technology. I believe that, at that point, Wanlass had fulfilled his duty to test General Electric products. Having discharged his duty and found no infringement, Wanlass could turn his attention to other matters until publicly available information triggered another reasonable suspicion of infringement. This court gives no explanation for imposing on Wanlass a continuing duty to test GE products without any reasonable suspicion.
Because laches is a claim specific defense, Wanlass was under no duty to continue testing General Electric products until he received additional information that would cause a reasonable person to believe that General Electric had started infringing his patent. A reasonable suspicion as to one product does not necessarily impose a continuing duty to test all future products made by a given manufacturer. This is especially true where tests show that the initial suspicions were misdirected.
Similarly, Wanlass had no reason to believe that Fedders infringed his patents. As this court correctly points out, “Wanlass did have a duty to investigate a particular product if and when publicly available information about it should have led Wanlass to suspect *1469that product of infringing.” Fedders’s advertisements and other public statements were simply not likely to arouse reasonable suspicions that Fedders was using Wanlass’s patented technology. Similarly, nothing in GE’s advertisements and other public statements disclosed infringement. This ease is correct and understandable: no publicly available information triggered a reasonable suspicion of infringement by Fedders and compelled Wanlass to conduct tests. This same principle would seem to cry out for a different result in General Electric.