Preliminary Injunction and Patent License Disputes

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by Dennis Crouch

Symbiont Nourishment, LLC v. BJM Feed Substances, LLC, 1 CA-CV 21-0218 (Ariz. App. 1st Div. Might 19, 2022)

Symbiont’s US Patent No. 9,446,094 addresses a method of extruding corn into a ensuing “hydrophilic, small-vitreous, gelatinous feedstuff” that is fed to dairy cattle. Seemingly this procedure sales opportunities to increased digestion of the starch content material.  The inventor Mark Holt is also owner of Symbiont. Holt was portion of forming two more businesses, BJM and Matrix and Symbiont certified the technologies (like the patent) to all those organizations.  The agreement provided a range of provisions — mainly a license with royalties for feed sold working with the procedure.

Items fell aside in 2019 with Matrix dissolving and BJM terminating its license.  BJM then began to do the job with one more organization (Garner) to manufacture feed merchandise.  The resulting lawsuit in Arizona state courtroom alleged: (1) breach of NDA (2) conversion of “assets, monies, and intellectual property” and (3) breach of fiduciary responsibility.

The district court docket issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting BJM from offering its feed solution applying the ‘094 patent or from soliciting other to do the same.  On charm however, the Arizona Court of Appeals has vacated and remanded–holding that the district court docket erred by presuming irreparable hurt because of to patent infringement.  The appellate court noted the change in legislation less than eBay, but also went on to clarify that  Arizona Law “does not presume irreparable harm.”  On remand, the district court docket will need to decide whether the likely ongoing infringement brings about any damage to the patentee that can’t be remedied by damages alone.

The appellate courtroom also resolved the question of jurisdiction.  All cases “arising under” the U.S. patent legislation are matter to unique jurisdiction of the Federal Courtroom process. In this article, even so, the lawsuit asserts only point out regulation claims of breach & conversion.  Making use of Gunn v. Minton, 568 U.S. 251 (2013), the court concluded that the underlying patent regulation troubles ended up not significant enough to warrant Federal jurisdiction.

When issues of federal patent legislation may be embedded in Plaintiffs’ promises, the resolution of their claims rests ultimately on the software of Arizona regulation, not federal patent law. To be successful on counts a single and two, Plaintiffs must show the existence and validity of the licensing and nondisclosure agreements, that these agreements governed Defendants’ perform, and that Defendants’ carry out violated the agreements. Likewise, Plaintiffs’ conversion declare turns on a displaying of Plaintiffs’ ownership or right to possession of specific residence and Defendants’ wrongful interference with that residence. Lastly, Plaintiffs’ fiduciary duty assert rests on Plaintiffs proving the existence of this kind of a duty and Defendants’ breach of that responsibility. Arizona regulation, not federal patent law, is dispositive of each individual of these statements.

. . . Whilst the adjudication of Plaintiffs’ promises may have to have the court docket to establish regardless of whether Defendants employed a feed-producing approach that infringed on Plaintiffs’ patented course of action, there is little to propose that the point out court’s investigation of this situation will have an impact on uniformity in patent legislation.  Certainly, the embedded patent concerns in this scenario are simple fact-bound and problem-certain and will have no precedential effect on federal courts or federal patent law normally. Nor do Plaintiffs’ statements increase novel patent problems. To the extent they elevate patent issues, they are types of simple infringement.

Slip Op. (interior citations eradicated).

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