E2interactive, Inc. v. Blackhawk Network, Inc.

• Decision Date: 27 December 2011
• Docket Number: 09-cv-629-slc
• Parties: E2INTERACTIVE, INC., et al.. Plaintiffs, v. BLACKHAWK NETWORK, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Wisconsin

E2INTERACTIVE, INC., et al.. Plaintiffs,

v.BLACKHAWK NETWORK, INC., Defendant.

09-cv-629-slc

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN

Dated: December 27, 2011

ORDER

In response to a telephonic inquiry regarding trial preparation, I am issuing this order to clarify for the parties that:

(1) This court will show the usual patent video to the jury at the beginning of the trial;

(2) This court will use the Seventh Circuit's pattern patent trial jury instructions, copies of which are attached;

(3) These new procedures (from the court's recently-revised pretrial conference order in patent lawsuits) shall apply in this case:

(a) Each party must accompany its proposed jury instructions and verdict questions with a memorandum explaining the reasons for its requests and citing its authority for them. A party objecting to its opponent's proposed jury instructions, verdict form or verdict questions must submit a memorandum explaining the basis and authority for its opposition. The parties no longer need to submit copies of these submissions to chambers.

(b) A party that wishes to obtain daily copy of the trial transcript must make arrangements with the court reporters as soon as possible but not later than the day of the final pretrial conference or ten calendar days before the first day of trial, whichever is earlier. Failure to do so constitutes waiver.

(4) Pursuant to this court's December 12, 2011 order on summary judgment, not later than January 12, 2012, the parties must jointly submit to the court a chart that lists which claims in both patents-in-suit and which products are at issue for trial.

Entered this 27th day of December, 2011.

BY THE COURT:

_____________

STEPHEN L. CROCKER

Magistrate Judge

Page 188

11. PATENTS

Page 189

Preliminary Instructions to Be Given at Outset of Trial

11.1.1 THE PARTIES AND THE NATURE OF THE CASE

This is a patent case. It involves U.S. Patent No[s]._______, _______, and _______. Patents are often referred to by their last three digits. I will call the patent[s] in this case the _______, _______, and._______ patent[s].

The _______ patent relates to [briefly describe technology or subject matter involved; repeat as necessary for each patent]. During the trial, the parties will offer testimony to familiarize you with this [technology; subject matter].

Plaintiff contends that Defendant [infringed; is infringing] the _ patent by its [making / using / selling / offering for sale / importing] _. Plaintiff contends that it is entitled to recover damages caused by that infringement. [Plaintiff also contends that Defendant's infringement was willful.]

Defendant [denies that it [infringed; is infringing] the _ patent] [and] [contends that the___patent is invalid].

I will explain these contentions to you later. First, I will give you some background about the U.S. patent system, the parts of a patent, and how a person gets a patent.

Committee Comment

1. The purpose of the proposed preliminary instructions is to give the jury an overview of the applicable law, rather than a detailed description of the law that the jury ultimately will apply during its deliberations. The trialjudge may, if she wishes, use as preliminary instructions the more complete set of applicable instructions contained in Sections 2 through 4.

2. The bracketed section in the second paragraph is intended to include a short descriptive overview of the nature of the patented technology, without getting into the details of that technology.

3. The third paragraph should be tailored to the types of infringement being alleged in the case, e.g., making, using, selling, etc., and can include reference to contributory or inducement infringement if those issues are present.

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11.1.2 THE PATENT SYSTEM

Patents are issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which is part of our government.

A patent is granted to the inventor for a set period of time, which, in this case, is [20 years from the time the application for the patent was filed] / [17 years from the date the patent issued].

During the term of the patent, if another person makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells in the United States or imports something that is covered by the patent without the patent owner's consent, that person is said to infringe the patent. The patent owner enforces a patent against persons believed to be infringers in a lawsuit in federal court, such as in this case.

The invention covered by a patent is described in the part of the patent that is called the "patent claim" or "patent claims." The patent claims are found in separately-numbered paragraphs at the end of the patent. When I use the word "claim" or "claims," I am referring to those numbered paragraphs.

[To be entitled to patent protection, an invention must be new, useful and non-obvious. A patent is not valid if it covers [a product; a process] that was already known or that was obvious at the time the invention was made. That which was already known at the time of the invention is called "prior art." I will give you more instructions about what constitutes prior art at the end of the case.]

Committee Comment

1. The Federal Judicial Center has published, in video format, a video entitled "An Introduction to the Patent System" (Fed. Jud. Center 2002), which the Court may wish to consider displaying to the jury at the outset of the case.

2. The Committee believes that a short introduction to the general nature of the patent system is appropriate because that system is not typically known to most jurors. This description is based primarily on the patent statute.

3. The reference to the length of the patent term found in the second paragraph should be modified depending on the term of the patent(s) at issue.

4. Where bracketed references to "product; process" are found, the court should use the appropriate term depending on the type(s) of patent claim(s) at issue.

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11.1.3 HOW A PATENT IS OBTAINED

When an applicant for a patent files a patent application with the Patent and Trademark Office, the application is assigned to a Patent Examiner. The Patent Examiner reviews the application to determine whether or not the invention described in the patent application and set out in the claims meets the requirements of the patent laws for patentable inventions.

The Patent Examiner advises the applicant of his findings in a paper called an "office action." The Examiner may "reject" the claims, that is, refuse to issue a patent containing those claims, if he or she believes the claims do not meet the requirements for patentable inventions. The applicant may respond to the rejection with arguments to support the claims, by making changes or amendments to the claims, or by submitting new claims. If the Examiner ultimately determines that the legal requirements for a patent have all been satisfied, he "allows" the claims, and the Patent and Trademark Office issues a patent.

This process, from the filing of the patent application to the issuance of the patent, is called "patent prosecution." The record of papers relating to the patent prosecution is called the prosecution history or file history. The prosecution history becomes available to the public when the patent is issued or the application is published by the PTO (normally 18 months after filing).

Committee Comment

This instruction is intended for cases in which the jury will be hearing evidence regarding the prosecution history of the patent and may be eliminated in cases in which there is no such issue.

Read in conjunction with Instructions 1.2 through 1.4, this instruction completes the description of the patent system. Use of these instructions, alone or together with the Federal Judicial Center video referenced in the Committee Comment to Instruction 1.2, could obviate the need for the parties to present "patent experts" to explain the patent system, the importance of claims, the parts of a patent, and the prosecution of patents. These instructions are not, however, intended to preclude, in an appropriate case, expert testimony focused on specific matters concerning, for example, the prosecution history of the patent at issue

Page 192

11.1.4 the parts of a patent

a patent includes two basic parts: a written description of the invention, and the patent claims. The written description, which may include drawings, is often called the "specification" of the patent.

You have been provided with a copy of the _ patent. Please look at the patent as I identify its different sections. [Other patents are also involved in this case. I am using this particular patent as an example to describe the various parts of a patent.]

The first page of the _ patent provides identifying information, including the date the patent issued and patent number along the top, as well as the inventor's name, the filing date, [the assignee, which is the company or individual that currently owns the patent], and a list of the prior art publications considered in the Patent Office during the time the patent was being sought.

The specification of the patent begins with a brief statement about the subject matter of the invention, which is called an abstract. This is found on the first page.

[Next, are the drawings, which appear as Figures _ to _ on the next _ pages. The drawings cepict various aspects or features of the invention. They are described in words later in the patent specification.]

The written description of the invention appears next. In this portion of the patent, each page is divided into two columns, which are numbered at the top of the page. The lines on each page are also numbered. The written description of the _patent begins at column 1, line 1, and continues to column _, line _. [It includes a background section, a summary of the invention, and a detailed description of the invention, including some specific examples.]

The written description is followed by one or more numbered paragraphs, which are called the claims. The claims may be...