Federal Circuit to District Court: Some Reasoning Please

Addressing the sufficiency of a trial court’s opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated-in-part and remanded the case for a more detailed infringement analysis. Golden Blount, Inc. v. Robert Peterson Co., Case No. 03-1298 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 19, 2004) (Linn, J.) (Newman, J., concurring in-part and dissenting in-part).

Golden Blount brought a patent infringement suit against Peterson. Following a three-day bench trial, the trial court rendered its opinion concluding, among other things, that Peterson infringed certain claims of the patent; Peterson’s infringement was willful; prosecution history estoppel did not preclude the application of the doctrine of equivalents; the case was exceptional, warranting the award of lawyers’ fees; and Golden Blount was entitled to lost profit damages.