Court Opinion

ID: 9760116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:40:36.993394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:08.355474
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the order to remand to allow the district court to consider vacatur. This remand should not, however, be construed as an imprimatur on the joint vacatur motion. The Supreme Court in U.S. Bancorp Mortgage Co. v. Bonner Mall Partnership, 513 U.S. 18, 29, 115 S.Ct. 386, 130 L.Ed.2d 233 (1994), held that “mootness by reason of settlement does not justify vacatur of a judgment under review.” The Court made clear that vacatur was an “extraordinary remedy” which petitioner would have to show “equitable entitlement to.” Id. at 26, 115 S.Ct. 386. Only in “exceptional circumstances” should a district court grant vacatur at the request of the litigants. Id. at 29, 115 S.Ct. 386. The Court explained that “[jjudicial precedents are presumptively correct and valuable to the legal community as a whole. They are not merely the property of private litigants and should stand unless a court concludes the public interest would be served by a vacatur.” Id. at 26, 115 S.Ct. 386 (citations omitted). In a patent case, especially where a patent has been invalidated, the public interest is overwhelming. See Cardinal Chem. Co. v. Morton Int’l, Inc., 508 U.S. 83, 100, 113 S.Ct. 1967, 124 L.Ed.2d 1 (1993) (holding that there is “a strong public interest in the finality of judgments in patent litigation” and especially in validity determinations). In fact, in Cardinal Chemical, the Supreme Court held the public interest was so high that the Federal Circuit must consider a validity determination on appeal, even if the court concludes t¿iat the defendant does not infringe the patent at issue. Id. at 101-02, 113 S.Ct. 1967. This is because patents are public rather than private rights and involve extremely high stakes for the litigants.1
In this case, for example, the patentee has already sued another party on the patent in question. If the decision that invalidated the patent at issue is not vacated, then the patentee will be collaterally estopped from asserting this patent in this and other suits, thereby saving courts and litigants the time and money it takes to proceed with patent litigation. Patent litigations are among the longest, most time-consuming types of civil actions. As of 2009, 384 patent cases had been pending in the district courts for three years or more. 2009 Admin. Off. U.S. Cts. Ann. Rep., at Table S-ll. Moreover, the costs of patent litigation are enormous with an average *1377patent case costing upwards of $3 million for each side. See American Intellectual Property Law Association, Report of the Economic Survey 2009 1-129 (2009). If the district court vacates its invalidity judgment then other defendants and other district courts will be forced to proceed with infringement suits, as there would likely be no collateral estoppel. Even if there were no other suits pending, these concerns should still weigh heavily against vacatur, as the only reason the patentee would want an invalidity judgment vacated is to potentially enforce the patent against others.
In this case, the settlement agreement covers not only the case on appeal to us, but three additional litigations between the parties involving three different patents. This case is properly remanded to the district court because the district court is in the best position to determine whether the fact that this settlement will end four litigations between the parties is sufficiently “exceptional” to justify potentially forcing other defendants to litigate or license the patent the district court has already held invalid. See U.S. Bancorp, 513 U.S. at 29, 115 S.Ct. 386.

. The public rights are particularly vulnerable when considering vacatur following settlement. There will be no opposing voice when the parties move for vacatur because both parties benefit. Aside from the settlement itself, the patent owner retains a patent that has been adjudged invalid and the defendant now has a license to a patent that the patent owner may assert against the defendant's competitors.