Judge Connolly Dismisses Plaintiff’s Claims Seeking Declaratory Judgment Of Non-Infringement For Failure To Establish Declaratory Judgment Jurisdiction

By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Colm F. Connolly in Power Integrations, Inc. v. CogniPower LLC, Civil Action No. 20-15-CFC (D.Del. July 1, 2020), the Court granted Defendant’s motion to dismiss counts 3, 4, and 5 of the Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) after finding that Plaintiff failed to establish declaratory judgment jurisdiction for the claims.

Plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 that two of its products and the use of those products do not directly or indirectly infringe any of the three patents-in-suit owned by Defendant. Id. at *2. Defendant argued in support of its motion that Plaintiff failed to establish the existence of a “case or controversy between the parties” with respect to the patents-in-suit and, thus, the Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over counts 3, 4 and 5. Id. Plaintiff countered arguing that Defendant’s allegations of infringement against Plaintiff’s customers implicitly accused Plaintiff of indirect infringement and, therefore, created a case or controversy sufficient to give the Court jurisdiction over the declaratory judgment counts. Id. at *6. After review of the record, the Court agreed that Plaintiff had failed to establish declaratory judgment jurisdiction for counts 3, 4 and 5. Id. at *6-10. Thus, counts 3, 4 and 5 were dismissed.

A copy of the Memorandum Opinion is attached.

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