Drinker Biddle Patent Litigation Team Secures Another Summary Judgment Win for Samsung in Digital Camera Patent Litigation

A federal district court judge granted summary judgment of non-infringement last week, clearing the last of the Samsung Techwin digital cameras remaining in the lawsuit brought by the German-based licensing firm, Papst Licensing GmbH & Co. KG.

In granting summary judgment of non-infringement for the remaining cameras, Judge Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that Papst had made only “bald allegations” and cannot demonstrate the existence of a genuine dispute of material fact regarding infringement.

Papst filed a lawsuit in June 2007, asserting that Samsung Techwin infringed U.S. Patent Nos. 6,470,399 and 6,895,449 for a “Flexible Interface for Communication between a Host and an Analog I/O Device.”

The litigation initially involved more than 350 accused Samsung cameras and camcorders, which were alleged to allow users to download pictures and video to their computers using certain USB technology. In October 2010, Papst moved to amend its complaint against Samsung Techwin to add three new parties, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Telecommunications, Inc. and several entirely new product categories, including MP3 players and mobile phones, to the litigation. Samsung Techwin opposed Papst’s motion as untimely and prejudicial to the Samsung entities currently in the litigation. Judge Collyer agreed and denied Papst’s motion in its entirety in February 2011.

Through wins on five summary judgment motions and the motion to keep the other Samsung entities out of the case, all of the Samsung accused products have been removed from or cleared of infringement in the present litigation.

The Drinker Biddle team consists of partners Brian Rupp and Patrick Kelleher, and associates Jasmine Patel and Jeremiah Posedel, resident in the Chicago office.

To read coverage of this case from IP Law 360, click here.

To read the recent decisions, click here.