This week is Court Week at the Federal Circuit, with hearings starting today. The Federal Circuit is providing access to live audio of each panel scheduled for argument via the Federal Circuit’s YouTube channel. In total, the court will convene four panels to consider about 25 cases. Of these 25 cases, the court will hear oral arguments in 15. Of these argued cases, one case attracted an amicus brief. Here’s what you need to know about that case.
Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Motorola Mobility LLC
As explained in our argument preview, in this case the Federal Circuit will review a district court’s determination that Uniloc USA, Inc. did not hold all exclusionary rights to the asserted patent for purposes of satisfying Article III’s standing requirement.
Uniloc argues that the district court erred because the court “erroneously ruled that [a third party’s] putative right to sublicense the patent-in-suit deprived Uniloc of standing under Article III of the Constitution.” Moreover, Uniloc argues that the ability of the third party, a lender named Fortress Investments, “to sublicense the patent could not deprive Uniloc of standing” because “a patent owner has standing even where a licensee has a ‘virtually unfettered right to sublicense’ the patent.” Finally, Uniloc argues the district court erred when it “declined to substitute Uniloc 2017 as plaintiff solely because its ruling that Uniloc lacked standing when the case was filed” and that this “rendered the substitution request moot.”
In response, Motorola argues that Uniloc’s prior litigation with Apple, Inc. collaterally estops them from raising the standing issue in the present case. In the alternative, Motorola argues that Uniloc entered into a licensing scheme with Fortress that granted Fortress “an unfettered right to sublicense . . . in the event that Uniloc defaulted,” that Uniloc “subsequently defaulted by failing to meet a monetization target by millions of dollars,” and that “the sublicense destroyed [Uniloc’s] exclusionary rights.”
This case attracted one amicus brief in support of Uniloc filed on behalf of Cirba, Inc. (d/b/a “Densify”).
Jeffrey Lamken will argue for Uniloc.
Louis Klapp will argue for Motorola.
This argument is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, September 6, in Courtroom 201 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern.