Dr. Richard Chinn reports:

In Cap Export, LLC v. Zinus Inc. the Fed. Cir. vacated the district court’s grant of summary judgment based on invalidity. The district court had ordered DJ defendant to file a summary judgment motion for validity then granted summary judgment to DJ plaintiff for invalidity. The Fed. Cir. found the district court improperly granted summary judgment without notice to patentee. Patentee was found to have been denied a full and fair opportunity to ventilate the issues. The district court was also found to have improperly dismissed with prejudice one of patentee’s claims not addressed in their summary judgement motion for validity. The district court also improperly relied upon a reference, in spite of a factual dispute as to the availability as prior art. The DJ defendant was awarded costs.