Federal Circuit Finds Foreign Lawsuits Did Not Avoid A Laches Bar

On February 16, 2016, in a patent case that could have implications on the trademark side, the Federal Circuit ruled that the pursuit of foreign enforcement actions were not sufficient to avoid a successful laches defense by a U.S.-based defendant.

Hedwig Lismont is a Belgian citizen who claimed to have developed a method for manufacturing goods covered by a German Patent which issued in 1998 and a U.S. Patent which issued in 2002. Both the German Patent and U.S. Patent in question are owned by German manufacturing company Alexander Binzel Schweisstechnik Gmbh & Co. KG (Binzel-Germany). Between October 2000 and at least 2009, Mr. Lismont filed two litigations in Germany, as well as separate due process actions in the German Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights related to his inventorship claim for the German patent. On October 31, 2012, twelve years after initiating the first litigation in Germany, Mr. Lismont filed his claim to correct