New Trial Necessary for Inguran LLC’s Patent Infringement Suit

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on January 29, 2019, ruled that Inguran LLC’s patent infringement suit against ABS Global will need a new trial because it found that the jury’s assessments of two out of the three patent claims at issue could not be reconciled under the rules governing dependent claims and enablement. ABS Global, Inc. v. Inguran, LLC, 7th Cir., No. 17-1873, 1/29/19.

Inguran LLC owns U.S. Patent No. 8,206,987, which covers a technique for sorting bull sperm cells. A jury concluded that ABS had infringed that patent and that the sorting and sex-sorting claims of the patent were valid, but that the narrowing claim of the patent was invalid because it wasn’t enabled. The Seventh Circuit reversed the jury verdict, explaining that it is impossible for the dependent claim not to be enabled if the independent claim is enabled.