“[W]hether the affirmance by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of a finding that a patent has not been infringed is a sufficient reason for vacating a declaratory judgment holding the patent invalid.”
“In rejecting the Federal Circuit’s practice we acknowledge that factors in an unusual case might justify that court’s refusal to reach the merits of a validity determination—a determination which it might therefore be appropriate to vacate. A finding of noninfringement alone, however, does not justify such a result. Nor does anything else in the record of this case. The two patents at issue here have been the subject of three separate lawsuits, and both parties have urged the Federal Circuit to resolve their ongoing dispute over the issue of validity; it would be an abuse of discretion not to decide that question in this case.”
