Tuesday, December 6, 2011

"Facts Outside the Pleadings" May be Used to Show Sufficiency of Patent Infringement Claim Even After Iqbal and Twombly

Defendant's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim was denied even though the court found that the complaint itself failed to state a claim for infringement. "[Plaintiff] asserts that during a course of correspondence both before and after the complaint was filed, [it] gave [defendant] a claim chart detailing how a specific . . . latch infringed the [patent-in-suit]. Because [defendant] is on notice of [plaintiff's] more detailed allegations regarding [its] alleged infringement, [plaintiff] asserts that its bare-bones complaint is sufficient to state a claim. . . . [T]he Seventh Circuit has recently made clear that, even after Iqbal and Twombly, plaintiffs may still suggest facts outside of the pleadings to show that their complaints should not be dismissed, so long as those facts are consistent with the complaint. Accordingly . . . the court finds that [plaintiff] has pled sufficient factual material to state a plausible claim – that is, sufficient to put the defendant on notice of a plausible claim against it – and, therefore, the complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim."

Illinois Tool Works Inc v. Elektromanufaktur Zangenstein Hanauer GmbH & Co. KGaA
, 2-11-cv-00262 (WIED November 30, 2011, Order) (Stadtmueller, J.)

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