HOLLANDER v. ETYMOTIC RESEARCH INC.

• Decision Date: 01 November 2010
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 10-526.
• Citation: 726 F.Supp.2d 543
• Parties: Bentley A. HOLLANDER, Plaintiff, v. ETYMOTIC RESEARCH, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

726 F.Supp.2d 543

Bentley A. HOLLANDER, Plaintiff,

v.ETYMOTIC RESEARCH, INC., Defendant.

Civil Action No. 10-526.

United States District Court,E.D. Pennsylvania.

July 14, 2010.

Opinion Denying Reconsideration Nov. 1, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.

Ilan Rosenberg, Jacob C. Cohn, Cozen O'Connor, Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiff.

Jonathan M. Rushman, Stephen F. Sherry, McAndrews Heid & Malloy Ltd., Chicago, IL, Lynn Bavaro Morreale, Stuart A. Schanbacher, Woodcock Washburn LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

TUCKER, District Judge.

Presently before the Court are Defendant Etymotic Research, Inc.'s Motion to Dismiss or Transfer (Doc. 13); Plaintiff Bentley Hollander's Response in Opposition thereto (Doc. 14); Defendant's Motion to File a Reply (Doc. 15); and Plaintiff's Response in Opposition thereto (Doc. 16). For the reasons set forth below, this Court will grant in part and deny in part Defendant's Motion to Dismiss or Transfer, and deny Defendant's Motion to File a Reply.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Bentley Hollander (“Plaintiff”) has brought this qui tam action against Defendant Etymotic Research, Inc. (“Defendant”) for its alleged violation of the false marking statute, 35 U.S.C. § 292, in connection with its marking of certain earphones and earplugs with expired patent numbers. Specifically, Plaintiff claims that Defendant has violated 35 U.S.C. § 292(a) by, inter alia, falsely marking articles with expired patents and using those expired patents in its advertising of the articles for the purpose of deceiving the public into believing that the articles are covered by the expired patents. (Compl. ¶ 2.)

Defendant Etymotic is a research, development, and manufacturing company that designs and manufactures in-ear products, such as earphones, hearing aids, and earplugs. ( See Compl. ¶¶ 9-15.) Defendant's scientists, engineers, and audiologists have collaborated to generate over 100 patents. ( See Compl. ¶ 16.) Plaintiff claims that, since 1984 and continuing to the present, Defendant has marked, or caused to be marked, products with one or more of the '679 Patent, the '753 Patent, and the '683 Patent. ¹ (Compl. ¶¶ 16-17.) According to Plaintiff, the ' 679 Patent expired on July 5, 2004; the ' 753 Patent expired on October 4, 2005; and the ' 683 Patent expired on January 27, 2008. (Compl. ¶¶ 20-22.) Defendant's alleged marking and sale of several products with those expired patents has given rise to the instant suit.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

On a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the court is required to accept as true all allegations in the complaint and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom, and to view them in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Oshiver v. Levin, Fishbein, Sedran & Berman, 38 F.3d 1380, 1384 (3d Cir.1994). A complaint should be dismissed only if the alleged facts, taken as true, fail to state a claim. See In re Warfarin Sodium Antitrust Litig., 214 F.3d 395, 397-98 (3d Cir.2000). The question is whether the claimant can prove any set of facts consistent with his or her allegations that will entitle him or her to relief, not whether that person will ultimately prevail. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); Semerenko v. Cendant Corp., 223 F.3d 165, 173 (3d Cir.2000). While a court will accept well-pled allegations as true for the purposes of the motion, it will not accept bald assertions, unsupported conclusions, unwarranted inferences, or sweeping legal conclusions cast in the form of factual allegations. Morse v. Lower Merion Sch. Dist., 132 F.3d 902, 906 (3d Cir.1997). On the contrary, “[t]he pleader is required to ‘set forth sufficient information to outline the elements of his claim or to permit inferences to be drawn that these elements exist.’ ” Kost v. Kozakiewicz, 1 F.3d 176, 183 (3d Cir.1993) (citation omitted).

On a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1), dismissal is warranted where a court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over a case. Rule 12(b)(1) motions are either facial or factual challenges. CNA v. United States, 535 F.3d 132, 139 (3d Cir.2008). A facial attack concerns the sufficiency of the pleadings, whereas a factual attack is a dispute over the existence of certain jurisdictional facts alleged by the plaintiff. Id. (citing United States ex rel. Atkinson v. Pa. Shipbuilding Co., 473 F.3d 506, 514 (3d Cir.2007)). “In reviewing a facial attack, the court must only consider the allegations of the complaint and documents referenced therein and attached thereto, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Gould Elecs., Inc. v. United States, 220 F.3d 169, 176 (3d Cir.2000). By contrast, when a defendant attacks subject matter jurisdiction “in fact,” the court is “free to weigh the evidence and satisfy itself whether it has power to hear the case.” Carpet Group Int'l v. Oriental Rug Imps. Ass'n, Inc., 227 F.3d 62, 69 (3d Cir.2000) (citing Mortensen v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 549 F.2d 884, 891 (3d Cir.1977)). In reviewing a factual attack, the court is not confined to the allegations of the complaint. Cestonaro v. United States, 211 F.3d 749, 754 (3d Cir.2000). No presumption of truthfulness attaches to the plaintiff's allegations, “and the existence of disputed material facts will not preclude the trial court from evaluating for itself the merits of jurisdictional claims.” Carpet Group Int'l, 227 F.3d at 69 (citation omitted). The plaintiff bears the burden of persuasion regardless of whether the challenge is facial or factual. Henderson v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 169 F.Supp.2d 365, 367-368 (E.D.Pa.2001).

DISCUSSION

Defendant has raised four arguments in support of dismissing this action or, in the alternative, transferring venue to the Northern District of Illinois. The Court will address each of those arguments in turn.

I. Marking After Patent Expiration

[1] First, Defendant concedes that it has been marking and advertising expired patents, but argues that such activities do not constitute false marking. Specifically, Defendant contends that an article that is encompassed by a claim of a patent that has expired is not an “unpatented article” under the false marking statute, and therefore, the Complaint should be dismissed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and/or Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

The false marking statute permits any person to sue a party who marks the word “patent” on an “unpatented article.” 35 U.S.C. § 292. There is a dearth of case law in the Third Circuit addressing whether the continued use of a mark on a product after the expiration of a patent constitutes false marking. However, Defendant's argument that Section 292 does not reach the marking of articles with expired patents is not persuasive in light of Supreme Court and Federal Circuit precedent. See generally 7 Donald S. Chisum, Chisum on Patents § 20.03 (2010) (“[A] strong case can be made for finding culpable mismarking when a person intentionally continues to mark articles with the number of an expired patent.”)

The Supreme Court has held that “[f]or purposes of federal law ... an item for which a patent has expired or been denied ... is unpatented and unpatentable.” Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc., 489 U.S. 141, 159, 109 S.Ct. 971, 103 L.Ed.2d 118 (1989). Also, in a recent case, the Federal Circuit acknowledged that articles marked with expired patent numbers are falsely marked. Pequignot v. Solo Cup Co., 608 F.3d 1356, 1362 (Fed.Cir.2010). Specifically, the Federal Circuit held that an article covered by an expired patent is “unpatented” and “[a]n article that was once protected by a now-expired patent is no different [from] an article that has never received protection from a patent.” 608 F.3d at 1361 see also Clontech Labs., Inc. v. Invitrogen Corp., 406 F.3d 1347, 1352 (Fed.Cir.2005) (noting that the false marking statute's reference to “unpatented article” means that “the article in question is not covered by at least one claim of each patent with which the article is marked”).

Here, since the subject products are covered by expired patents, they are “unpatented.” Therefore, the Court will not dismiss this action on the basis of Defendant's argument that marking an article after the expiration of a patent does not violate 35 U.S.C. § 292.

II. Standing

Defendant also argues that Plaintiff lacks standing to pursue his claims. To satisfy the constitutional standing requirements of Article III, a plaintiff must show that: (1) he suffered an “injury in fact;” (2) the injury is traceable to the defendant's action; and (3) the injury is likely to be redressed by the court. See, e.g., Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180-181, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000); Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). The plain language of 35 U.S.C. § 292(b) clearly provides that “[a]ny person” is permitted to sue for false marking.

Moreover, courts have recognized that actions for falsely marking articles with expired patents state legally cognizable claims on behalf of the United States. See, e.g., Woods v. Empire Health Choice, Inc., 574 F.3d 92, 97 (2d Cir.2009) (“Qui tam plaintiffs, even if not personally injured by a defendant's conduct, possess constitutional standing to assert claims on behalf of the Government as its effective assignees.”) (citing Vt. Agency of Natural Res. v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 529 U.S. 765, 773-74, 120 S.Ct. 1858, 146 L.Ed.2d 836 (2000)); Forest Group, Inc. v. Bon Tool Co., 590 F.3d 1295, 1302-03 (Fed.Cir.2009); Simonian v. Cisco Sys., No. 10 C 1306, 2010 WL 2523211, at *2, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60752, at *5 (N.D.Ill. June 17, 2010) (“In the case of qui tam statutes, an injury to the United States is...