For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, March 28, 2016, we will discuss the following cases:

Halo Creative & Design Ltd. v. Comptoir Des Indes, Inc. (Fed. Cir. March 14, 2016) (available here).  A Hong Kong furniture manufacturer asserted Canadian defendants infringed their intellectual property and violated Illinois consumer fraud and deceptive business practices statutes.  The district court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds, contending that the Federal Court of Canada would be a superior forum.  The Federal Circuit reversed, concluding that, based on the evidence of record, the Federal Court of Canada would fail to provide redress for the subject matter of plaintiff’s dispute, and the district court abused its discretion in concluding otherwise.

Luminara Worldwide, LLC v. Liown Elec. Co. Ltd. (Fed. Cir. February 29, 2016) (available here).  The plaintiff was granted a license by Disney Enterprises, Inc. for patents teaching techniques for making artificial candles flicker like the flames of real candles.  These techniques were first developed for the “Haunted Mansion” attraction at Disneyland.  Plaintiff subsequently sued the defendant for patent infringement, and the defendant moved to dismiss for lack of standing.  The district court denied defendant’s motion and granted a preliminary injunction barring defendant from supplying distributors with artificial candle products that infringe the patents.  On appeal, the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of injunction and remanded for further proceedings, holding that plaintiff has standing to sue without joining Disney in the suit and there is a substantial question of validity.