Canon Ends Patent Fight with LD Products

Canon Ends Patent Fight with LD Products

According to Law360, Canon Inc. has dropped a patent dispute in the California federal court against LD Products over allegedly infringing aftermarket products sold by LD Products on Amazon.

The consent judgment, signed May 20, 2020 by U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. (pictured), comes after a year— on March 29 2019— after Japan-based Canon filed a suit against LD Products Inc. claiming LD Products had, directly and indirectly, infringed its ‘646 patent in certain laser printer cartridges used in HP and Canon laser printers.

The Original Claim

According to Canon, LD Products was selling the infringing products via Amazon.com and the ldproducts.com website. The OEM was seeking damages, including lost profits, a reasonable royalty, accrued interest and Canon’s costs associated with the lawsuit. Canon requested a jury trial.

One month later, on April 29, 2019, Canon amended the complaint alleging that LD Products was also infringing its ‘740, ‘494, ‘760, ‘916, ‘736 and ‘304 patents.

At the time, LD Products denied the alleged patent infringement and counter-filed two of its own counterclaims against Canon.

The Final Agreement

LD Products has continued to deny it infringed Canon’s patents but “wishes to conclude this litigation without further contesting infringement, validity or enforceability of any claims of the asserted patents.” It is now permanently barred from making or selling cartridges or products that infringe Canon’s patents, according to the judgment.

The judgment also states the companies have separately agreed to settle, although details of the settlement are not detailed.

Judge Birotte signed off on it on Thursday. The case is now dismissed with prejudice, although the judge noted that the court will retain jurisdiction to enforce the judgment.

Case details:

Case: Canon Inc. v. LD Products Inc., case number 2:19-cv-02085

Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Central District of California.

Patents-in-suit:  U.S. Patent Nos. 7,869,740 B2; 8,165,494 B2; 8,588,646 B2; 8,971,760 B2; 9,494,916 B2; 9,857,763 B2; and 10,162,304 B2.

Canon’s legal counsel: Sarah S. Brooks, Michael P. Sandonato and Edmund J. Haughey of Venable LLP.

LD Products’ legal counsel: Andrew Z. Edelstein, Gary M. Hnath and Bryan Nese of Mayer Brown LLP.

Related:

• LD Products Responds to Canon’s Infringement Suit
• Aftermarket Scores Another Win – Canon loses: zero degrees is not an angle
• US Trade Law Expert Claims Canon Has No Viable Options
• Canon Reviews its Options Over its Recent US Court Loss
• SCC Reacts to Aftermarket Win Against Canon
  

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