Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Defendant Sanctioned for Fabricating Prior Art

Plaintiff's motion for sanctions against a defendant who fabricated prior art and "committed fraud on the court" was granted in part. The court did not strike defendant's claims and defenses, but instead struck all evidence concerning the fraudulent information. "[Defendant's expert and president of the company] fabricated a fake [product], and falsely identified it both as the 'commercial embodiment' of [another patent], and as 'prior art' to the [patent-in-suit]. Defendant also presented Plaintiff with photographs of the fake [product], and provided Plaintiff with a video and photographs of the testing of the fake [product], in what appears to have been an effort to deceive Plaintiff and this Court into believing that the fake [product] existed before the effective date of the [patent-in-suit]. . . . Moreover, it is not possible to conclude that these statements and representations were made in error because the evidence suggests that Defendant attempted to avoid answering questions about the fabricated evidence and did nothing to correct the obviously false statements."

Furminator, Inc. v. Kim Laube & Co., 4-08-cv-00367 (MOED December 21, 2009, Memorandum & Order) (Webber, J.)

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