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Law360 (September 17, 2020, 9:43 PM EDT) -- Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, a Pennsylvania federal judge has pushed back a patent infringement jury trial involving Cutsforth Inc. that had been set for next month until May of next year, adding that the case will remain closed until "restrictions necessitated by the virus have lapsed."
The jury trial in the Western District of Pennsylvania — where Cutsforth claims that rival LEMM Liquidating Co. LLC infringes two patents on brush holders used in electric generators — was originally scheduled for April, but in mid-March was postponed to Oct. 26 due to the pandemic.
Following an order by the district's chief judge last month that postponed all jury trials set to begin before November, U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon said on Wednesday that rescheduling the October trial was consistent with the "substance and tenor" of the earlier court order.
Earlier this week, the parties unsuccessfully attempted to settle the case, court documents show. The trial is now set for May 24, 2021.
"This case shall remain stayed and administratively closed," Judge Bisson said. "Once the court resumes normal operations, and restrictions necessitated by the virus have lapsed, the court will reopen this case."
Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The trial delay is the latest development in a dispute that dates back to 2012, when Cutsforth accused LEMM, MotivePower Inc. and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. of infringing its patents relating to removable brush holders for power generating equipment.
Cutsforth's case against LEMM had been pending in Minnesota for years. The parties had been through discovery, experts and summary judgment briefing and argument, an attorney for Cutsforth told Law360 in 2017.
In August 2017, a Minnesota federal judge shipped the case from Minnesota to Pennsylvania, finding that the U.S. Supreme Court's TC Heartland decision, which puts limits on where patent cases can be filed, was an intervening change of law such that LEMM's failure to make a venue objection earlier was not a waiver of the objection.
But a Federal Circuit panel vacated the venue transfer that November, sending the case back to the lower court to consider other factors besides the TC Heartland ruling. LEMM then filed another motion to transfer the case from Minnesota to Pennsylvania, and the district judge in February 2018 granted its request to do so.
The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,141,906 and 7,990,018.
Cutsforth is represented by Mathias W. Samuel and Conrad Gosen of Fish & Richardson PC.
The defendants are represented by Kent E. Baldauf Jr. and Fred Colen of Webb Law.
The case is Cutsforth Inc. v. Lemm Liquidating Co. LLC et al., case number 2:17-cv-01025, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
--Additional reporting by Bonnie Eslinger. Editing by Daniel King.
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