Sure Fit Home Products, LLC v. Maytex Mills Inc.

Background

The plaintiffs asked the court to compel Maytex Mills, Inc. to produce several categories of documents before the deadline for the plaintiffs’ opening claim-construction brief concerning Maytex’s asserted design patent. Maytex opposed the request.

Court’s analysis

For a design patent, claim construction is the process of determining what the patent’s claimed design covers. The court explained that this inquiry focuses on the design’s nonfunctional aspects and may consider features of the claimed design in relation to the accused design and prior art.

Most of the disputed requests concerned the cost of the accused products and Maytex’s other products. The court found that those materials appeared relevant to infringement and damages but were not required to determine whether the asserted patent contained functional and nonfunctional elements. The plaintiffs did not persuasively explain why the information would meaningfully assist claim construction.

Ruling

The court granted the plaintiffs’ request for documents relating to the function of prior-art shower-curtain designs and granted the request for documents relating to the design of the accused products. It denied the plaintiffs’ remaining requests for purposes of claim construction. The court stated that the order did not address whether those remaining requests were relevant to other issues in the case.

The court also adjourned the claim-construction briefing dates until the ordered documents were produced. It ordered the parties to meet and confer and submit a joint letter by July 15, 2021, describing their production plan and proposing revised dates for claim-construction briefing and discovery. Judge Lorna G. Schofield stated that a revised case-management plan would issue after the parties submitted their letter.