Motion to Reconsider Order Granting Motion to Transfer

Let’s start the week off with a little palate cleanser in the form of an order dealing with a motion to transfer a patent case to the Northern District of California, but with the added frisson of a different procedural context – this one’s an order on a motion to reconsider the Court’s order granting the motion to transfer.

Motion for Summary Judgment as to Defenses of Improper Inventorship & Derivation

An improper inventorship defense rests on the statutory requirement that a patent is invalid if more or fewer than the true inventors are named.

A defense of “derivation”, on the other hand, requires proof of both prior conception of the invention by another and communication of that conception to the patentee.

Both defenses require proof by clear and convincing evidence.

This case presents an interesting situation in which the defendant claimed that the plaintiff wasn’t the inventor, but did not identify who else was.  Given that the procedural context was the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment as to the defendant’s improper inventorship defense, the issue presented was thus whether Defendant had created a genuine issue of material fact regarding its defenses of improper inventorship and derivation.

On the derivation defense, the issue was whether the Defendant had adduced proof that the “entirety” of the invention was conceived by others.