District court grants summary judgment of noninfringement for Finnegan client Toyota against Solomon Technologies, Inc.

 The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida has granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Finnegan client Toyota in Solomon Technologies, Inc. v. Toyota Motor Corp. Solomon sued Toyota in the Middle District of Florida in September 2005, claiming that Toyota’s hybrid vehicles infringed U.S. Patent No. 5,067,932 ("the ’932 patent"). That case was stayed, however, after Solomon filed a related action in the International Trade Commission in January 2006.  Represented by Finnegan, Toyota showed the ITC that its accused hybrid vehicles do not infringe Solomon’s patent.  Solomon appealed to the Federal Circuit, which affirmed the ITC’s decision in Toyota’s favor. Solomon then tried to reopen the Florida case.  Toyota obtained the Court’s permission to file an early motion for summary judgment, arguing that the ITC and the Federal Circuit had already decided the issues.  The Court agreed with Toyota, holding that the doctrine of judicial estoppel precluded Solomon from raising new and inconsistent arguments in a later proceeding.  Accordingly, the district court granted Toyota’s motion for summary judgment that the accused hybrid vehicles do not infringe the ’932 patent.