Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A.
Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. | |
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Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Alito, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
Dissent | Kennedy |
Laws applied | |
Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. 754 (2011), is a
Justice Anthony Kennedy filed a dissenting opinion.[3]
Background
In the late 1980s, respondent
Sunbeam's fryer, which cost less to manufacture than SEB's, allowed Sunbeam to sell the same invention at a lower cost. Once purchasers of cool-touch deep fryers began selecting Sunbeam's product, SEB sued Sunbeam in March, 1998, alleging patent infringement. Sunbeam notified Pentalpha of the lawsuit the next month, but Pentalpha, undeterred, went on to sell the fryers to
SEB accepted a settlement with Sunbeam and proceeded to sue Pentalpha under two theories. First, SEB claimed that Pentalpha had directly infringed upon its patent in violation of 35 U.S.C. §271(a).[4] Second, SEB claimed that Pentalpha had induced Sunbeam, Fingerhut, and Montgomery Ward to infringe upon the patent, contravening §271(b).[2] The jury found for SEB on both claims and additionally that Pentalpha had willfully infringed upon SEB's patent, awarding SEB $4.65 million. Pentalpha filed post-trial motions on a number of grounds with the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The District Court granted them in part, reducing the jury award to $2.65 million.
Pentalpha appealed to the
Opinion of the Court
In an 8–1 decision delivered by Justice Alito, in which
- Induced infringement under §271(b) requires knowledge that the induced acts constitute patent infringement.
- Deliberate indifference to a known risk that a patent exists does not satisfy the knowledge required by §271(b). Nevertheless, the Federal Circuit's judgment must be affirmed because the evidence in this case was plainly sufficient to support a finding of Pentalpha's knowledge under the doctrine of willful blindness.
Kennedy's dissent
In Kennedy's dissenting opinion, he agreed with the Court that to contravene §271(b), the inducer must know that "the induced acts constitute patent infringement". However, he argued that willful blindness does not suffice for actual knowledge of the infringement, writing that the Court justifies substitution of willful blindness for knowledge in two ways, "neither of which is convincing".[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. 754 (2011). This article incorporates public domain material from this U.S government document.
- ^ a b .
- ^ "Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A." SCOTUSblog. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- ^ .
- ^ SEB SA v. Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc., 594 F.3d 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2010).
- ^ https://www.oyez.org/cases/2010/10-6 [bare URL]
External links
- Text of Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. 754 (2011) is available from: CourtListener Google Scholar Justia Oyez (oral argument audio) Supreme Court (slip opinion) (archived)