Fresh From the Bench: Latest Federal Circuit Court Cases

CASE OF THE WEEK

Eko Brands, LLC v. Adrian Rivera Maynez Enterprises, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2018-2215, et al. (Fed. Cir. Jan. 13, 2020)

In this appeal from the Western District of Washington, the Federal Circuit addresses issues relating to claim construction, attorney’s fee awards, and willful infringement/enhanced damages. At the district court, following Eko’s default in ITC proceedings brought by Adrian Rivera Maynez (“ARM”) wherein ARM alleged that Eko infringed two claims of ARM’s ’320 patent, Eko asserted declaratory judgment claims of invalidity and non-infringement against those same claims of the ’320 patent, which relates to an adapter that could be used with Keurig coffee machines to allow them to function with not only “K-cups,” which are larger cup-shaped filter cartridges, but also with “pods,” which are small, flattened disk-shaped filter cartridges.

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BioDelivery Sciences Int’l, Inc. v. Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2019-1643, et al. (Fed. Cir. Jan. 13, 2020)

The Court denied en banc review of the panel decision in this case, and designated its denial precedential. Judge Newman dissented, making essentially the same arguments she made from her dissent in the panel decision. Our coverage of the panel decision is available here.

The opinion can be found here.

Written by: Scott Eads and Nika Aldrich, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt

Contributors: Erin M. Forbes