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Summary Judgment of Noninfringement Granted in MHL TEK

By Michael C. Smith

MHL Tek, LLC v. Nissan, et al., 2:07cv289 (E.D.Tex. Dec. 15, 2009)
Judge: T. John Ward
Holding: Motion for summary judgment of noninfringement GRANTED.

Okay, it may not be the right logo, but I thought the post needed some visual bling.  This is a patent case dealing with tire monitoring system on cars.  If the name look familiar it's because this litigation gave rise to the two Federal Circuit In re Volkswagen mandamus opinions in the last year - one in 2008 affirming a Michigan judge's decision to transfer a related case to Marshall, where prior litigation was pending, and one this year in this case affirming Judge Ward's decision to keep the related litigation in his court (relying in part on the prior mandamus ruling in the same litigation).  (Incidentally, I highly recommend reading Judge Ward's venue opinion in this case, reported at 2009 WL 440627.  It was his first venue opinion in a patent case following In re VW II and In re TS Tech and I think still remains the most thorough treatment of the various factors that a defendant uses in trying to show whether a proposed transferee forum is "clearly more convenient" as set forth in those opinions).

This case was set to go to trial next month and yesterday Judge Ward notified the parties that he had determined that summary judgment of noninfringement would be granted as to certain of the accused products.  Since it was not clear what this meant for certain other products in the case the Court set a phone conference for later this week.  A written order detailing the court's analysis is to follow, and I'll post on it when it comes out.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).