Defendant Entitled to Summary Judgment on Unclean Hands Defense Where Plaintiff Threatened Suit Before Acquiring Patent Rights, Falsifying Assignments

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment that plaintiff was barred from asserting infringement of the patent-in-suit due to unclean hands because "[Plaintiff] did not own any rights in the [asserted] patent until . . . a few weeks before filing suit . . . [yet] despite not having been assigned any rights in the patent, [plaintiff] began writing letters [several years earlier] to several companies claiming those companies had infringed [plaintiff's] patent and threatening litigation . . .[and] [plaintiff] filed with the PTO fraudulent, back-dated assignments . . ."

Intamin Ltd v. Magnetar Technologies Corp et al., 8-04-cv-00511
(CACD May 22, 2009, Order) (Feess, J.)