Alps South, LLC v. The Ohio Willow Wood Company, No.
2013-1452, -1488, 2014-1147, -1426, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 9368 (Fed.
Cir. Jun. 5, 2015) (Chen, J.). Click Here for a copy of the opinion.
Alps South ("Alps"), an exclusive licensee of US
Patent 6,552,109, sued The Ohio Willow Wood Company
("OWW") for infringement without joining the patent owner
(AEI) as a co-plaintiff. OWW moved to dismiss the case for lack of
standing under the Patent Act, which the district court denied. At
trial, a jury found the '109 patent valid and willfully
infringed. OWW appealed.
The main issue addressed by the Federal Circuit on appeal was
whether Alps, without joining AEI as a co-plaintiff, had standing
to sue. "An exclusive licensee has standing to sue it its own
name, without joining the patent holder where 'all
substantial' rights' in the patent are transferred."
Here, the license "granted Alps the right to enforce the
'109 patent and provided that AEI would cooperate 'to
