This webinar will consider the spectrum of views district courts have embraced regarding the pleading standard for direct infringement since the abrogation of Form 18 in late 2015, and offer strategies for both plaintiffs and defendants.
Plaintiffs filing under the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure must meet the pleading standard articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal. Different courts must have ruled differently on what that means in practice, with decisions varying case-to-case according to the patent and product, and from lenient to very strict. At one extreme, one district judge has held that a Form 18-style pleading was sufficient to meet current standards, while at the other end of the spectrum, a court has required the plaintiff to allege facts showing infringement of every asserted claim.
Our panelists will analyze the new challenges, such as defendants’ need to reply to a detailed complaint with little time to prepare affirmative defenses, such as invalidity. The panelists will also discuss how the Federal Circuit has addressed the new pleading standard in Lyda v. CBS, and whether more definitive guidance is likely to be forthcoming.
Speakers:
- David Donoghue, Holland & Knight LLP
- Chris Freeman, Blackbird Technologies
- Mark Hannemann, Shearman & Sterling LLP