Right To Jury Trial On Inventorship Issue

Addressing for the first time the issue of whether a party is entitled to a jury trial for equitable claims, where the party has a right to a jury trial based on other (legal) claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the district court, holding that when there are common factual issues underlying the equitable and legal claims, both claims should be tried to a jury. Frank T. Shum v. Intel Corp., LightLogic Inc. and Jean-Marc Verdiell., Case No. 06-1249 (August 24, 2007) (Lourie, J.; Friedman, Sr. J., dissenting).

The plaintiff, Frank Shum, is an optical engineer. In 1996, Shum formed an optoelectronic company called Radiance Design. A year later, Shum and defendant Jean-Marc Verdiell, incorporated Radiance. Shum filed a patent application entitled "Optoelectronic Assembly and Method of Making the Same" on behalf of Radiance, naming himself as the sole inventor. Verdiell later encouraged Shum to let the patent go abandoned. The relationship between Shum and