The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of the patentee’s motion for partial relief from the district court’s final judgment of non-infringement and underlying claim construction. Louisville Bedding Co. v. Pillowtex Corp., Case No. 05-1595 (Fed. Cir. July 25, 2006) (Lourie, J.).
In separate actions, Louisville Bedding filed suit against Pillowtex in 1994 and Perfect Fit Industries in 1998, accusing both of infringing the U.S. Patent No. 5,249,322 ("the `322 patent"). Both Pillowtex and Perfect Fit are competing manufacturers and sellers of mattress pads. Both cases were eventually terminated via settlement agreements, and the district court in each of the cases entered final judgment. Subsequent to its settlement with Louisville Bedding in 1998, Pillowtex went out of business. One ramification of Pillowtex’s dissolution was that Xymid, LLC, with whom Pillowtex originally had an exclusive supply agreement for the 4059 mattress pad skirt
