Today, the Federal Circuit released two nonprecedential opinions and three nonprecedential orders. The first opinion comes in a patent case appealed from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and addresses obviousness. The second opinion comes in another patent case appealed from a district court and addresses several issues. Two of the orders dismiss appeals for failure to pay docketing fees and one dismisses for failure to file a brief within the permitted time. Here are the introductions to the opinions and links to the dismissals.
In re Universal Electronics, Inc. (Nonprecedential)
This is a consolidated appeal from two Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions affirming the Patent Office Examiner’s rejection of claims from Appellant Universal Electronics, Inc.’s U.S. Patent Application Nos. 12/645,037 and 16/279,095 as obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103. For the reasons below, we affirm.
Fleet Engineers, Inc. v. Mudguard Technologies, LLC (Nonprecedential)
Tarun Surti appeals from decisions of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan in which he was awarded damages for infringement of U.S. Patent RE44,755 (the “’755 patent”) by Fleet Engineers, Inc., but was denied other claimed relief. See Fleet Eng’rs, Inc. v. Mudguard Techs., LLC, No. 1:12-cv-01143, 2021 WL 9057803 (W.D. Mich. Oct. 19, 2021).
In particular, Surti appeals from (1) a decision excluding certain evidence from trial, (2) an order narrowing the issues of infringement to a subset of the asserted claims, (3) grants of judgment as a matter of law (“JMOL”) in favor of Fleet on claims of induced and contributory infringement, (4) portions of the jury verdict on infringement and damages, (5) failure to award attorney fees, and (6) failure to grant a permanent injunction. Fleet cross-appeals, asserting that (1) the district court erred in not additionally granting JMOL in its favor on Surti’s claims of direct infringement and that (2) the jury verdict on direct infringement was not supported by substantial evidence. For the following reasons, we affirm.