Authorized Sale of a Product Does Not Exhaust Patent Rights Against Upstream Parties in the Chain of Commerce

Apr 4, 2019District Court, Infringement, Patent Exhaustion Doctrine, Technology

A district court in the Western District of Washington denied Adaptics Ltd.’s (“Adaptics”) motion for summary judgment of patent exhaustion, which was based on a theory that an authorized sale by a downstream reseller can exhaust patent rights against an upstream manufacturer. The plaintiff, Perfect Company (“Perfect”), alleged that two of Adaptics’ app-based products infringed Perfect’s U.S. Patents No. 8.829,365 and No. 9,772,217. Perfect also sued Apple Inc. (“Apple”), alleging that Apple’s sale of Adaptics’ products infringed the same patents.

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