Fresh From the Bench: Latest Federal Circuit Court Cases

CASE OF THE WEEK

SiOnyx LLC et al. v. Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. et al., Appeal Nos. 2019-2359, -1217 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 7, 2020)

In the only precedential patent opinion issued this week, the Federal Circuit determined multiple issues in cross-appeals from the district court’s disposition of post-trial motions following a jury trial. The dispute concerned infringement, patent ownership, and contract issues arising from the parties’ 2007-2008 collaboration on commercializing “black silicon” technology first developed by SiOnyx’s co-founders in the late 1990s. The parties’ non-disclosure agreement had provided that each party claimed ownership in patent rights arising from their confidential information provided thereunder, and when Hamamatsu began commercializing black silicon products following termination of the agreement, SiOnyx sued for breach of the NDA, for infringement of its own patent covering the technology, and for an order compelling Hamamatsu to assign to SiOnyx Hamamatsu’s U.S. and foreign patents arising from the collaboration.