Late yesterday, the Federal Circuit released a nonprecedential order dismissing an appeal. This morning, the court released a precedential opinion in a patent case, a nonprecedential opinion in a veterans case, and two additional nonprecedential orders dismissing appeals. Here are the introductions to the opinions and links to the dismissals.
Constellation Designs, LLC v. LG Electronics Inc. (Prededential)
This patent infringement case raises issues of eligibility, infringement, and damages and relates to communication systems that use non-uniform constellations that have increased capacity compared to conventional, uniform constellations operating within a similar signal-to-noise ratio band. Constellation Designs, LLC sued LG Electronics Inc.; LG Electronics USA, Inc.; and LG Electronics Alabama, Inc. (collectively, “LG”) for patent infringement in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which proceeded to a jury trial. The district court entered a final judgment against LG for willfully infringing claims 17, 21, 24, and 28 of U.S. Patent No. 8,842,761; claim 5 of U.S. Patent No. 10,693,700; claims 21 and 23 of U.S. Patent No. 11,019,509; and claims 24 and 44 of U.S. Patent No. 11,018,922.
LG challenges on appeal the district court’s (1) summary judgment of patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, (2) denial of LG’s motion for judgment as a matter of law of non-infringement, and (3) denial of LG’s motion for judgment as a matter of law of no damages or denial of LG’s motion to exclude the testimony of Constellation’s damages expert.
For the reasons discussed below, we vacate the summary judgment of eligibility for claims 17, 21, 24, and 28 of the ’761 patent and claim 5 of the ’700 patent; affirm the summary judgment of eligibility for claims 21 and 23 of the ’509 patent and claims 24 and 44 of the ’922 patent; affirm the denial of LG’s motion for judgment as a matter of law of non-infringement; and affirm the denial of judgment as a matter of law of no damages as well as the denial of LG’s motion to exclude the testimony of Constellation’s damages expert. Accordingly, we vacate-in-part, affirm-in-part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Sylvain v. Collins (Nonprecedential)
Kenneth Sylvain appeals a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (“Veterans Court”), affirming a 2023 Board of Veterans’ Appeals (“Board”) decision. Sylvain v. McDonough, No. 23-5339, 2024 WL 4343483, at *1 (Vet. App. Sept. 30, 2024) (“Decision”). In its 2023 decision, the Board declined to revise or reverse a 2002 Board decision denying service connection for a lower back condition. J.A. 15. We dismiss.