Voda v. Cordis Corp.

• Decision Date: 01 February 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-1238.,05-1238.
• Citation: 476 F.3d 887
• Parties: Jan K. VODA, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CORDIS CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit

476 F.3d 887

Jan K. VODA, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CORDIS CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 05-1238.

United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit.

February 1, 2007.

Mitchell G. Stockwell, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, of Atlanta, GA, argued for plaintiff-appellee. With him on the brief was Jonathan K. Waldrop. Of counsel was John A. Kenney, McAfee & Taft, of Oklahoma City, OK.

John M. DiMatteo, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, of New York, NY, argued for defendant-appellant. With him on the brief were Kelsey I. Nix and Diane C. Ragosa.

William C. Rooklidge, Howrey LLP, of Irvine, California, for amicus curiae American Intellectual Property Law Association. With him on the brief were Christopher J. Kelly, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, of Washington, DC; and Claudia Wilson Frost and Sharon A. Israel, of Houston, TX.

William M. Atkinson, Alston & Bird LLP, of Charlotte, NC, for amicus curiae The Federal Circuit Bar Association. With him on the brief was Charles F. Schill, The Federal Circuit Bar Association, of Washington, DC.

Scott R. McIntosh, Attorney, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, for amicus curiae United States. With him on the brief were Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General. Of counsel on the brief were James A. Toupin, General Counsel,

John M. Whealan, Solicitor, Cynthia C. Lynch and Joseph G. Piccolo, Associate Solicitors, United States Patent and Trademark Office, of Arlington, VA.

George L. Graff, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, of New York, NY, for amicus curiae Intellectual Property Owners Association. With him on the brief were J. Jeffrey Hawley, Intellectual Property Owners Association, of Washington, DC, and Douglas K. Norman, Eli Lilly and Company, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Of counsel was Herbert C. Wamsley, Intellectual Property Owners Association, of Washington, DC.

John R. Thomas, Georgetown University Law Center, of Washington, DC, for amici curiae Law Professors.

Before NEWMAN, GAJARSA, and PROST, Circuit Judges.

GAJARSA, Circuit Judge.

This is an interlocutory appeal by Cordis Corp. from a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma assuming supplemental subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367 over the foreign patent infringement claims of Jan K. Voda, M.D. ("Voda"). The district court established jurisdiction over Voda's original claims of U.S. patent infringement pursuant to § 1338. In a subsequent order, the district court granted Voda leave to amend his complaint to add infringement claims based on foreign patents. Voda's amended complaint alleged infringement taking place outside the United States in violation of patents issued by various foreign countries. The district court found subject matter jurisdiction over the foreign patent claims pursuant to the supplemental jurisdiction statute § 1367. Voda v. Cordis Corp., No. 03-1512, slip op. at 2, 2004 WL 3392022 (W.D.Okla. Aug. 2, 2004). The district court certified its order for interlocutory review pursuant to § 1292(b). We agreed that the interlocutory appeal "involve[s] a controlling question of law to which there is a substantial difference of opinion and for which an immediate appeal may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation" and thus, granted Voda's petition for interlocutory appeal of "whether the district court has supplemental subject matter jurisdiction over Dr. Voda's five foreign patents." Voda v. Cordis Corp., 122 Fed.Appx. 515 (Fed.Cir. 2005). This court has jurisdiction pursuant to § 1292(b) and (c).

In Stein Associates, Inc. v. Heat & Control, Inc., 748 F.2d 653, 658 (Fed.Cir.1984), this court held that U.S. district courts had no discretionary power to enjoin a party from enforcing a foreign patent before a foreign tribunal. We stated unequivocally that "the issues are not the same, one action involving United States patents and the other involving British patents" and that "[o]nly a British court, applying British law, can determine validity and infringement of British patents." In this case, we are presented with a different issue but one that raises similar concerns: whether a district court may exercise supplemental jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367 over infringement claims based on foreign patents. For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that the district court erred in granting leave to amend based on § 1367. Accordingly, we vacate the order of the district court granting leave to amend and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

The plaintiff-appellee Voda is a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The defendant-appellant Cordis is a U.S.-based entity incorporated in Florida. None of the several foreign Cordis affiliates is a party to the present action, and we note that they appear to be separate legal entities.¹ These foreign affiliates have not been joined to this action.² To prevent confusion, we refer to the defendant-appellant as "Cordis U.S."

The patents at issue relate generally to guiding catheters for use in interventional cardiology. The details of the technology are not essential here. Voda's U.S. patents stem from a common continuation-in-part ("CIP") application filed in October 1992, which provides the written description common to the three U.S. patents at issue in this case: U.S. Patent Nos. 5,445,625 (the '625 patent), 6,083,213 (the '213 patent), and 6,475,195 (the '195 patent). The foreign patents issued from a common Patent Cooperation Treaty ("PCT") application. The PCT application designated the European Patent Office ("EPO") and Canada as recipients. Voda's EPO patent application eventually generated European Pat. No. 0 568 624, British Pat. No. GB 568 624, French Pat. No. FR568624, and German Pat. No. DE 69 23 20 95. The PCT application also ultimately led to the issuance of Canadian Pat. No. CA 2,100,785.

Voda sued Cordis U.S. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma alleging infringement of his three U.S. patents: claims 1-2 and 5-7 of the '625 patent, claims 1-5 of the '213 patent, and claims 1-6 of the '195 patent. Cordis U.S. answered by asserting noninfringement and invalidity of the U.S. patents.

Voda then moved to amend his complaint to add claims of infringement of the European, British, Canadian, French, and German foreign patents. Voda's amended complaint alleges that "Cordis [U.S.] has commenced and continues acts of making, selling, offering for sale and selling at least the XB guiding catheter, which is covered by [the several foreign patents] without Dr. Voda's authority. Such acts constitute infringement, under corresponding foreign law of [these several foreign patents]." Cordis U.S. has admitted that "the XB catheters have been sold domestically and internationally since 1994. The XB catheters were manufactured in Miami Lakes, Florida from 1993 to 2001 and have been manufactured in Juarez, Mexico since 2001." Voda's amended complaint asks for damages, fees, and "such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper." We resolve the jurisdictional issue based upon those allegations, accepting them to be true.

Cordis U.S. opposed Voda's attempt to amend its complaint to add foreign patent infringement claims on the basis that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over such claims. The parties briefed the court regarding its jurisdiction over foreign patent infringement claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a) and its discretion to exercise supplemental jurisdiction under § 1367(c). In a three-page order, the district court analyzed two circuit court cases discussing supplemental jurisdiction over patent claims, Mars, Inc. v. Kabushiki-Kaisha Nippon Conlux, 24 F.3d 1368 (Fed.Cir.1994) (finding no jurisdiction), and Ortman v. Stanray, 371 F.2d 154 (7th Cir.1967) (affirming district court's denial of a motion to dismiss foreign patent infringement claims). The district court determined that "[t]he allegations in the [proposed] amended complaint demonstrate that this case is more akin to Ortman than to Mars" and thus, that "it would have supplemental jurisdiction over the foreign patent[ ] claim[s]." Voda v. Cordis, No. CIV-03-1512-L, slip op. at 2, 2004 WL 3392022 (August 2, 2004). Therefore, the district court granted Voda's motion to file his amended complaint. Id.

Cordis U.S. appeals, and in light of this appeal, the proceedings with respect to the foreign patent infringement claims have been stayed.³ The record indicates that an answer to the amended complaint has not been filed and that discovery has not been taken on the foreign claims. While the record therefore does not establish the defenses Cordis U.S. would raise, Cordis U.S. represents on appeal that it would raise invalidity of the foreign patents as a defense.

A proper exercise of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to § 1367 requires both the presence of jurisdiction under subsection (a) and an appropriate decision to exercise that jurisdiction under subsection (c). For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that the district court erred under subsection (c).

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The existence of supplemental jurisdiction over foreign patent claims based on claims of U.S. patent infringement is a question unique to U.S. patent law, and thus, we apply the law of our circuit rather than that of the regional circuit. Mars, 24 F.3d at 1371 ("The issue whether the district court had jurisdiction to hear Mars' claim of Japanese patent infringement is of importance to the development of the patent law and is clearly a matter that falls within the exclusive subject matter responsibility of this court." (quotation marks and citations omitted)); see Lab. Corp. of Am. Holdings v. Chiron Corp., 384 F.3d 1326, 1330 (Fed.Cir.2004) (applying Federal Circuit law because we "apply the law of the regional circuit . . . unless the issue pertains to or is...