Krippelz v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 28 October 2010
• Docket Number: No. 98 CV 2361.,98 CV 2361.
• Parties: Jacob KRIPPELZ, Sr., Plaintiff,v.FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

750 F.Supp.2d 938

Jacob KRIPPELZ, Sr., Plaintiff,

v.FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Defendant.

No. 98 CV 2361.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

Oct. 28, 2010.

Adam K. Mortara, Mark Edward Ferguson, Martha M. Pacold, Hamilton H. Hill, Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, James D. Ryndak, Catherine Lee Gemrich, Eric H. Weimers, Mark K. Suri, Ryndak & Suri LLP, David L. Schwartz, Wallenstein Wagner & Rockey, Ltd., Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff.Alfred M. Swanson, Jr., Kevin Thomas Lee, Greene & Letts, Edward L. Foote, Peter Charles McCabe, III, Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, IL, Daniel M. Stock, Frank A. Angileri, John S. Le Roy, Seth E. Rodack, Thomas A. Lewry, Brooks Kushman PC, Southfield, MI, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES B. ZAGEL, District Judge.I. BACKGROUND

This is a patent infringement case involving “puddle lamps,” devices installed on vehicles to illuminate the ground beside the automobile. Plaintiff Jacob Krippelz, Sr. (“Krippelz” or “Plaintiff”), the inventor and owner of U.S. Patent No. 5,017,903 (the “ '903 patent”), sued Defendant Ford Motor Company (“Ford” or “Defendant”) for infringement of claim 2 of the patent. In December 2008, a jury found in favor of Plaintiff, awarding him $23,000,000.00 in damages. After a bench trial on the issue, I found Ford's infringement to be willful and awarded Plaintiff an additional $21,017,400.00 in damages. Plaintiff was awarded an additional $11,685, 957.00 in prejudgment interest. Ford now moved for judgment as a matter of law, or, in the alternative, a new trial. For the following reasons, Ford's motions are denied.

II. LEGAL STANDARDSA. Judgment As A Matter Of Law

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50(a)(1), judgment as a matter of law (“JMOL”) may be granted against a prevailing party if, after trial, “the court finds that a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party on that issue[.]” JMOL is “a procedural issue not unique to patent law,” and governed by “the law of the regional circuit where the appeal from the district court normally would lie.” Z4 Technologies, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 507 F.3d 1340, 1346 (Fed.Cir.2007) (citation and quotations omitted).

In the Seventh Circuit, JMOL “should be granted only where there can be but one conclusion from the evidence.” McRoberts Software, Inc. v. Media 100, Inc., 329 F.3d 557, 564 (7th Cir.2003) (citation omitted). I must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, and should reverse the verdict “only if there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis to support [it].” Id. In my analysis, I must be “careful to avoid supplanting [my] view of the credibility or the weight of evidence for that ... of the jury.” Id. (citation and quotations omitted).

B. Patent Invalidity

A patent is entitled to a presumption of validity. 35 U.S.C. § 282. This presumption may be overcome with clear and convincing evidence of the patent's invalidity. Finnigan Corp. v. International Trade Com'n, 180 F.3d 1354, 1365 (Fed.Cir.1999). A patent is invalid if it is anticipated by another invention. 35 U.S.C. 102(b). Anticipation “requires the disclosure in a single piece of prior art of each and every limitation of a claimed invention.” Apple Computer, Inc. v. Articulate Systems, Inc., 234 F.3d 14, 20 (Fed.Cir.2000) (citation omitted). Anticipation is a question of fact. Id. Anticipation is measured by the knowledge of those skilled in the art. In re Baxter Travenol Labs., 952 F.2d 388, 390 (Fed.Cir.1991) (for anticipation, the “dispositive question” is “whether one skilled in the art would reasonably understand or infer” that a reference teaches or discloses all of the elements of the claimed invention).

A patent is also invalid if it is rendered obvious by prior art. 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). A prior art patent or combination of patents renders a claim obvious “if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains.” Ball Aerosol & Specialty Container, Inc. v. Limited Brands, Inc., 555 F.3d 984, 991 (Fed.Cir.2009) (quoting 35 U.S.C. 103(a)). In conducting an obviousness inquiry:

the scope and content of the prior art are to be determined; differences between the prior art and the claims at issue are to be ascertained; and the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art resolved. Against this background, the obviousness or nonobviousness of the subject matter is determined. Such secondary considerations as commercial success, long felt but unsolved needs, failure of others, etc., might be utilized to give light to the circumstances surrounding the origin of the subject matter sought to be patented.

KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 406, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 167 L.Ed.2d 705 (2007) (quoting Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17–18, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966)). “[A] patent composed of several elements is not proved obvious merely by demonstrating that each of its elements was, independently, known in the prior art.” Id. at 418, 127 S.Ct. 1727. Obviousness is a question of law. Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966). This question of law, however, is premised on underlying factual determinations. Dennison Mfg. v. Panduit Corp., 475 U.S. 809, 810–11, 106 S.Ct. 1578, 89 L.Ed.2d 817 (1986).C. Motion For A New Trial

Rule 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows a court to order a new trial “after a jury trial, for any reason for which a new trial has heretofore been granted in an action at law in federal court.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(a)(1). Whether to grant a new trial is a procedural issue not unique to patent law and is therefore governed by regional circuit law. z4 Technologies, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 507 F.3d 1340, 1347 (Fed.Cir.2007). In deciding a motion for a new trial under Rule 59, the “district court must determine whether the verdict is against the weight of evidence, the damages are excessive, or if for other reasons the trial was not fair to the moving party.” Westchester Fire Ins. Co. v. General Star Indent. Co., 183 F.3d 578, 582 (7th Cir.1999) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

There are several possible grounds for setting aside a verdict and granting a new trial. A verdict will be set aside as “contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence only if no rational jury could have rendered the verdict.” BP Amoco Chem. Co. v. Flint Hills Resources, LLC, 697 F.Supp.2d 1001, 1015 (N.D.Ill.2010) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Federal courts will not “set aside a jury verdict if a reasonable basis exists in the record to support the verdict, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, and leaving issues of credibility and weight of evidence to the jury.” Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

To obtain a new trial based on an evidentiary ruling, the movant must show that: (1) a timely objection or motion to strike appears in the record, stating specific grounds for the objection if the specific ground is not apparent; (2) the erroneous ruling prejudiced the movant's substantial rights. Fed.R.Evid. 103(a). Because evidentiary rulings are reviewed for abuse of discretion, a judge's erroneous ruling may be deemed harmless if the outcome of the trial would have been unchanged. Alverio v. Sam's Warehouse Club, Inc., 253 F.3d 933, 942 (7th Cir.2001).

A party may also move for a new trial based on an erroneous jury instruction. The Federal Circuit has noted that “[t]here may be some question as to whether [the Federal Circuit] reviews jury instructions relating to patent law under [its] own law or regional circuit law.” Amgen Inc. v. F. Hoffman–LA Roche Ltd., 580 F.3d 1340, 1368 n. 13 (Fed.Cir.2009). The Federal Circuit reviews “the legal sufficiency of jury instructions on an issue of patent law without deference to the district court.” Broadcom Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., 543 F.3d 683, 697 (Fed.Cir.2008) (quotation marks omitted). The court “reviews jury instructions in their entirety and only orders a new trial when errors in the instructions as a whole clearly mislead the jury.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). “[A] party seeking to alter a judgment based on erroneous jury instructions must establish that (1) it made a proper and timely objection to the jury instructions, (2) those instructions were legally erroneous, (3) the errors had prejudicial effect, and (4) it requested alternative instructions that would have remedied the error.” NTP, Inc. v. Research In Motion, Ltd., 418 F.3d 1282, 1311–12 (Fed.Cir.2005) (quotation marks omitted).

In the Seventh Circuit, “A district court has substantial discretion to formulate jury instructions so long as they represent a complete and correct statement of the law.” Warfield v. City of Chicago, 679 F.Supp.2d 876, 884 (N.D.Ill.2010) (citations, internal quotation marks, and brackets omitted). “In order to receive a new trial based on erroneous instructions, a defendant must show both that the instruction did not adequately state the law and that the error was prejudicial to him because the jury was likely to be confused or misled.” Id. (citations, internal quotation marks, and brackets omitted); see also Lasley v. Moss, 500 F.3d 586, 589 (7th Cir.2007) (reversal is justified “only if the instruction misguides the jury so much that a litigant is prejudiced”) (citation omitted). In considering whether the movant has been prejudiced, courts must examine the instructions as a whole, all of the evidence and arguments presented, and whether the jury was misinformed on the applicable law. Warfield, 679 F.Supp.2d at 884 (citation omitted).

D. Motion for Reconsideration

“As the Seventh Circuit has repeatedly observed, ...