Perry Mason Moment in Patent Trial: Inventor Died, Then Signed Application
Oops. As a witness was testifying earlier this week in a patent infringement case in California, a slight discrepancy between documents came to light.
Testifying for tiny MultiMetrixs, one of the inventors said that another of the inventors, David Margulis, had signed the relevant patent office declarations in 2003 and 2004, and then died. However, a death certificate shown to the witness by Applied Materials counsel Jeffrey Bleich said Margulis had died in 2002, recounts the Recorder.
Faced with the death certificate, the witness admitted: “Oh, 2002, he pass away,” the legal publication reports.
Responded Bleich: “He passed away in 2002?”
The witness: “Yes.”
Bleich: “He was dead when this was submitted, wasn’t he, sir?”
The witness: “Looks like.”
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel then ruled for Bleich, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, finding the patent claimed by MultiMetrixs unenforceable due to inequitable conduct.
A lawyer from Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, which represented MultiMetrixs at trial, did not respond to a request for comment from the legal publication. The firm reportedly had been seeking to withdraw from the case since March, and Patel granted its motion to do so after the bench trial was completed.
