First Quality responded that its own patent antedated SCAs patent and made it invalid. First Quality thinks it critical that 286 runs backward from the time of suit, Brief for Respondents 41, but Petrella described the Copyright Acts statute of limitations in almost identical terms. First Quality points to the history of the 1952 Act to assert Congresss intent in preserving unenforceability defenses. Do not send any information that you would have treated confidentially. 6,375,646 B1 (646 patent). Dooley Greetings, Court Fans! A copyright holder who tries to lie in wait to see if a defendants investment will prove successful will discover that the Copyright Act allows that defendant to prove and offset against . Chaides 392 (modifying the equity damages statute to allow equity courts to award a reasonable sum even if a patentee had difficulty proving actual damages, but making no change to the legal damages provision). On March 21, 2017, the United States Supreme Court ("Supreme Court" ) issued its opinion in SCA Hygiene Prods. In July 2004, without notifying First Quality, SCA asked the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to initiate a reexamination proceeding to determine whether the 646 patent was valid in light of the Watanabe patent. Eng. Absent any Congressional changes to 286, SCA argues that the words should be interpreted as taking their ordinary and contemporary meaning. Co. v. Union Planters Bank, N.A., 530 U.S. 1, 910 (2000); Metropolitan Stevedore Co. v. Rambo, 515 U.S. 291, 300 (1995). See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337. Another, Universal Coin, applied laches to a legal damages claim without any analysis of the propriety of doing so. Only two Courts of Appeals held that laches could bar a damages claim, and that does not constitute a settled, uniform practice of applying laches to damages claims. First Quality had no knowledge or suspicion of SCAs activity and thus invested heavily in the underwear business, expanding product lines and acquiring competitors. . contrast to the mountain of authority recognizing laches as a defense, the majority could not Court: United States Supreme Court; Area(s) of Law: Patents; Date Filed: March 21, 2017; Case #: 15-927; SCA filed for a rehearing en banc, arguing that first, Petrella might overrule Aukerman, so that the defense of laches would not apply to a case that was brought within the six-year damages limitation established by relevant patent law; and second, questioning whether the laches defense should be made available to bar a patent infringement suit under certain circumstances. There, the Court held that laches could not bar a damages claim brought within the Copyright Acts limitations period. First Quality contends that this case differs from Petrella because a true statute of limitations runs forward from the date a cause of action accrues, whereas 286s limitations period runs backward from the filing of the complaint. The majority also tries to discredit the persuasiveness of the pre-Patent Act case law authority. The dissent found the clear statute of limitations in 286 coupled withPetrellaovercame what it characterized as weak evidence of a common law rule which allowed latches as a legal defense in patent infringement cases. Any of these entities may file briefs in support of SCA. First Quality responded that the Petrella cannot reasonably be distinguished on this ground. damages. First Quality points to post-1952 Court of Appeals decisions holding that laches can be invoked as a defense against a damages claim. 5,415,649 (the 649 patent), which had the same diaper construction as the 646 patent and had been filed before the 646 patent. Moreover, the most that can possibly be gathered from a pre-1938 equity case is that laches could defeat a damages claim in an equity court, not that the defense could en-tirely prevent a patentee from recovering damages. Turning to the cases that actually refer to damages, we note that many of the cases merely suggest in dicta that laches might limit recovery of damages. For these reasons, Petrella cannot be dismissed as applicable only to what First Quality regards as true statutes of limitations. Citing House and Senate Reports, SCA explains that there was very little discussion on granting 282 such a broad scope of application. 954, 121 U.S.P.Q.2d 1873 (2017), United States Supreme Court, case facts, key issues, and holdings and reasonings online today. First Quality moved for partial summary judgment for non-infringement and for summary judgment of laches and equitable estoppel. Cir. The minority, though, dissented with the part of the opinion that held latches is also available against claims of legal relief. As Petrella recounted, the principal application of laches was, and remains, to claims of an equitable cast for which the Legislature has provided no fixed time limitation. Id., at ___ (slip op., at 12); see also R. Weaver, E. Shoben, & M. Kelly, Principles of Remedies Law 21 (2d ed. In fact, the ABA notes that, Petrella did not bar laches entirely; the case allowed for exceptions under certain circumstances (e.g., if a patent-owners delay in filing suit is egregious, the patent-owner would not be entitled to relief). In September 2014, a Federal Circuit panel decision affirmed the district court's ruling on laches. Thus, if the defendant invests say $50 million in a film, a copyright holder who waits until year 15 (when the film begins to earn a profit) to bring a lawsuit may be limited to recovering the defendants profits less an apportioned amount of the defendants initial $50 million investment. Podcast Episode - Wordle and the Web We Need 5 Because we conclude that First Quality fails to show that there was a special laches rule in the patent context, we need not address whether it is ever reasonable to assume that Congress legislated against the background of a lower court consensus rather than the contrary decisions of this Court. On August 2, 2010, SCA filed a complaint based on the verified 646 patent. 013-06. 5,415,649 (Watanabe patent)antedated the 646 patent and revealed the same diaper construction. Id., at 53a. v. First Quality Baby Products LLC et al., Case No. As a result, from the late 19th century until the merger of law and equity in 1938, nearly all patent litigationincluding suits for damagestook place in courts of equity that were applying laches in conjunction with a statute of limitations. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337. But the majority remains determined to stay the course and continue on, travelling even further away, Mathis v. United States, 579 U.S. ___, ___ (2016) (Alito, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 9), from Congress efforts, in the Patent Act, to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, U.S. 6, 29 Stat. This case arose from an appeal of the en banc decision of the federal court inSCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Products, LLC, No. 901, 9TH FLOOR, E WING, LOTUS CORPORATE PARK, LAXMI NAGAR, GOREGAON (EAST) MUMBAI Mumbai City MH 400063 IN , - , . . Dell claims that without a laches defense, evidence may get lost and detrimentally weaken an accused infringers defense against the validity of a patent. United States Supreme Court; 2017; SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Products, LLC . Three years later, in March 2007, the PTO issued a certificate confirming the validity of the 646 patent. The Supreme Court has granted SCA Hygeine's petition for writ of certiorari with merits briefing over the summer and a likely fall 2016 hearing on the question: . Co., 960 F.2d 1020 (Fed. First Quality counters SCAs accrual rule argument by contending that the separate-accrual rule is not offended by employing laches to bar damages claims within 286s limitations period. I recognize the Majoritys suggestion that the doctrine of equitable estoppel might help alleviate some of these problems. 1923, 82d Cong., 2d Sess., 3 (1952) (stating that the main purpose of the Patent Act was codification and enactment of existing law); 98 Cong. On October 31, 2003, Petitioners SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag and SCA Personal Care, Inc. (SCA) sent a letter to Respondent First Quality Baby Products, LLC et al. Rec. (e)The Federal Circuit and First Quality rely on three types of cases: (1) pre-1938 equity cases; (2) pre-1938 claims at law; and (3) cases decided after the merger of law and equity in 1938. 807 F.3d, at 1338 (opinion of Hughes, J.) See Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U.S. 392, 395 (1946) (If Congress explicitly puts a limit upon the time for enforcing a right which it created, there is an end of the matter); United States v. Mack, 295 U.S. 480, 489 (1935) (Laches within the term of the statute of limitations is no defense at law); Wehrman v. Conklin, 155 U.S. 314, 326 (1894) (Though a good defense in equity, laches is no defense at law. unenforceability, the Court noted that it could not identify a single federal statute that provides 100308, which reversed the Resolution [3] dated 2 August 2007 of Voluntary Arbitrator Renato Q. Bello in V.A. (We have found only two contrary decisions, both from the same District Court: Thorpe v. Wm. According to First Quality, 286 of the Patent Act is different because it turns only on when the infringer is sued, regardless of when the pat-entee learned of the infringement. Ibid. Co. v. Williams, 68 F. 489, 493494 (CA6 1895). Whether and to what extent the defense of laches may bar a claim for patent infringement brought within the Patent Acts six-year statutory limitations period, 35 U.S.C. Justice Alito delivered the opinion of the Court. (1) Because in 1897 Congress enacted a statute of limitationsvery much like the one before us nowfor patent claims brought in courts of equity. First Quality also contends that a true statute of limitations begins to run when the plaintiff discovers a cause of action, which is not the case with 286s limitations period, but ordinarily, a statute of limitations begins to run on the date that the claim accrues, not when the cause of action is discovered. The majority tries to minimize the overall thrust of this case law by dividing the cases into subgroups and then concluding that the number of undistinguishable precedents in each subgroup is too few to establish a settled, national consensus. Ante, at 12. That is precisely the kind of legislation-overriding judicial role that Petrella rightly disclaimed. After surveying these cases, the Federal Circuit concluded that by 1952 there was a well-established practice of applying laches to such damages claims and that Congress, in adopting 282, must have chosen to codify such a defense in 282(b)(1). The upshot is an absence here of the symmetrical effect of delay upon which the Court relied in Petrella. 8 For the same reason, the dissent misses the mark when it demands that we cite cases holding that laches could not bar a patent claim for damages. Post, at 8. Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Prods., LLC, 767 F.3d 1339 (Fed. In analyzing the use of laches in relation to statutory limitations, SCA claims that the lower courts did not adequately apply judicial precedent from Petrella. But the most prominent feature of the relevant legal landscape at that time was the well-established rule that laches cannot be invoked to bar a claim for damages incurred within a limitations period specified by Congress. Cir., . We reversed, holding that laches cannot defeat a damages claim brought within the period prescribed by the Copyright Acts statute of limitations. This case presents the Supreme Court with the opportunity to review whether the defense of laches will remain available to bar a patent infringement claim within the statutory limitations period of six years. v. First Quality Baby Prods. (c)The Federal Circuit based its decision on the idea that 282 of the Patent Act, which provides for defenses in any action involving the validity or infringement of a patent, creates an exception to 286 by codifying laches as such a defense, and First Quality argues that laches is a defense within 282(b)(1) based on unenforceability. Even assuming that 282(b)(1) incorporates a laches defense of some dimension, it does not necessarily follow that the defense may be invoked to bar a claim for damages incurred within the period set out in 286. First Quality argues as follows: When Congress enacts [a true statute of limitations], it can be viewed as having made a considered judgment about how much delay may occur after a plaintiff knows of a cause of action (i.e., after accrual) before the plaintiff must bring suitthus potentially leaving no room for judges to evaluate the reasonableness of a plaintiffs delay on a case-by-case basis under laches. Brief for Respondents 42. Sept. 18, 2015). Pp. 286. SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Products. SCA Hygiene Products ("SCA") manufactured adult diapers and obtained U.S. Patent No. The handful of cases that apply laches against a damages claim are too few to establish a settled, national consensus. After First Quality responded by claiming that its own patent pre-dated SCAs patent, SCA sought and received U.S. Patent and Trademark Office confirmation of its patents validity. For one thing, copyright law, unlike patent law, does not contain a century and a half of history during which courts held that laches and a statute of limitations could coexist. Pp. First Quality asserts that SCA does not adequately grapple with the tradition of applying laches as a defense to damages claims, and instead, its focus on pre-merger cases is flawed. Can an accused patent infringer stop a patent-holder from bringing a claim if the patent-holder waits too long to file the suit for patent infringement, even if the claim is brought within the statutory-provided six-year limitations period? 286. Two features of this statutory language are important. Act should be treated differently because it is not a traditional statute of limitations. 107a108a. ). No suit was filed and communications between the parties ceased. BRETT KAVANAUGH; SONIA SOTOMAYOR; CLARENCE THOMAS; CASES BY TERM. 316. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the oral argument for SCA Hygiene Products v. First Quality Baby Products, docket number 15-927. 572 U.S., at ___ (slip op., at 19). Co., 261 F. 195, 197198 (CA7 1919); A. R. Mosler & Co. v. Lurie, 209 F. 364, 371 (CA2 1913); Safety Car Heating & Lighting Co. v. Consolidated Car Heating Co., 174 F. 658, 662 (CA2 1909) (per curiam); Richardson v. D. M. Osborne & Co., 93 F. 828, 830831 (CA2 1899); and Woodmanse & Hewitt Mfg. 99 Va. L. Rev. As a result, First Quality maintained, the 646 patent was invalid and could not support an infringement claim. Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP. Nov. 1: Supreme Court Series - SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Products, LLC . Id., at 1333 (reinstating original panel holding on equitable estoppel). Laches, it says, is a gap-filling doctrine, generally applicable where there is no statute of limitations. The United States Supreme Court decided six very important patent cases in the 2016-17 term, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple Inc., called the "design patent case of the century," Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp., an international supply chain patent case, SCA Hygiene Products v. First Quality Baby Products, LLC, where the doctrine of laches was not a defense in a patent . argument that the Supreme Courts holding in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 1962 (2014) was contrary to the Federal Circuits precedent in A.C. Aukerman Co. v. R.L. Writing for The Recorder, Scott Graham characterizes the Courts decision to grant review as unsurprising, given the opportunity to upend the Federal Circuits rules on the defense of laches. Graham implies that the Court may be ready to bring the Federal Circuit in line with other courts, quoting attorney Andrew Dhuey as quipping [t]he Supreme Court probably didnt take this up to say Great Job, Federal Circuit! This does not constitute a settled, uniform practice of applying laches to damages claims. 1, 55 (West 1954). OP. Co., 261 F. 195, 197198 (CA7 1919); A.R. Mosler & Co. v. Lurie, 209 F. 364, 369370 (CA2 1913), these cases are too few to establish a settled, national consensus. 2014). Background NOTICE:This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. These kinds of defenses can depend upon contemporaneous evidence that may be lost over time, and they arise far more frequently in patent cases than any of their counterparts do in copyright cases. EFF contends that the internet era is making it more difficult to verify work product; because software and relevant code are updated so frequently, the updates are rarely documented and thus it is difficult to prove, or disprove, patent infringement on the internet. Section 286 of the Patent Act begins with the phrase [e]xcept as otherwise provided by law, and according to the Federal Circuit, 282 of the Act is a provision that provides otherwise. First Quality argues that the small number of cases at law should not count against its position because there were few patent cases brought at law after 1870, but it is First Qualitys burden to show that Congress departed from the traditional common-law rule. Whenever Congress wished to modify patent damages law, it rewrote the statutory provisions governing damages in equity, not law. The Court also rejected the Federal Circuits finding that patent cases decided by lower courts Corp., 18 F.2d 483, 490 (CA4 1927); Cummings v. Wilson & Willard Mfg. In a 7-1 decision issued on March 21, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court held in SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v. 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