Delaware Patent Litigation Report : Delaware Intellectual Property Lawyer & Attorney : Morris James Law Firm : Delaware Patent Litigation Report

The claimed invention is a sweatband for sporting activities that is designed to absorb both perspiration and impact forces.  The Magistrate finds that summary judgment of non-infringement is appropriate in this case because no reasonable jury could find that the defendant’s product, the “Brain-Pad” insert is "curved in configuration" as required by Claim 1 of the patent-in-suit.  Plaintiffs’ reliance on the doctrine of equivalents is barred by prosecution history estoppel.  The application for the patent-in-suit was amended three times in response to the PTO’s comments.  The amendments narrowed the scope of Claim 1 by introducing a new limitation and therefore act as a general disclaimer of the earlier versions of the claim.  Plaintiffs assert that any disclaimer was confined to limitations that were only tangentially related to the claim.  The Magistrate disagrees. Because the Magistrate finds no direct infringement, summary judgment is also appropriate with regard to plaintiffs' claims of willful infringement, contributory infringement, and inducement of infringement.