"Oho!" said the pot
to the kettle;
"You are dirty and ugly and black!
Sure no one would think you were metal,
Except when you're given a crack."
-Anonymous
(excerpt)
The adage "the pot calling the kettle
black"—referring to someone who is guilty of the very
thing that he accuses another of—is a bit of equitable common
sense that practitioners ought not to forget.
In a recent patent case, Tek Global S.R.L. v. Sealant
Systems International Inc., the adage proved to be
particularly apt. On remand from the Federal Circuit, Sealant
Systems (aka the "pot") objected to, and asked to strike,
the supplemental expert report of the plaintiff, Tek Global (aka
the "kettle", or perhaps the "tekkle").
Sealant Systems complained that the supplemental expert report went
beyond its permitted scope in addressing the Federal Circuit's
construction of the disputed claim term "cooperating
with." But too bad for the pot—its own
supplemental expert also went beyond the permitted
