Partial Patent Trial Didn't Violate Due Process: Fed. Circ.

On Monday, February 22, 2016 the Federal Circuit ruled that Nuance Communications' due process rights were not violated when a lower court held that Finnegan clients Abbyy USA Software House and Lexmarx International did not infringe eight of Nuance's text recognition patents. The trial was originally held only on three patents, but a Northern District of California Judge entered judgment for Abbyy on all eight of the patents Nuance initially asserted in the case. On appeal, Nuance argued that the court's decision violated due process, but the Federal Circuit rejected that argument since the company sought to limit the number of patents in trial. Finnegan attorney Erik R. Puknys represented Abbyy and Lexmark. He said, "We’re very pleased that the Federal Circuit confirmed that the district court needs to be given wide latitude in how it runs its cases. The decision shows that the parties in litigation need to present their positions at the appropriate time in a way that is mutually agreeable, and that a company seeking multiple trials on its patents needs to make that clear before the first trial."