Synqor, Inc. v. Artesyn Technologies, Inc.

NOTE: This order is n0nprecede1itial. United States Court of AppeaIs for the FederaI Circuit SYNQOR, INC., Plair,tiff-Appellee, V. ARTESYN TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND ASTEC AMERICA, INC., __ Defen,dants-AppeZlants, AND BEL FUSE, INC., * Defendant-Appellant, AND CHEROKEE INTERNATIONAL CORP. AND LINEAGE POWER CORP., Defendants-Appellants, AND DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC., DELTA PRODUCTS CORP., MURATA ELECTRONICS NORTH AMERICA, INC., MURATA MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., MURATA POVVER SOLUTIONS, INC., AND POWER-ONE, INC., Defendants-Appellan.ts. 2011-1191, -1192, -1193, -1194, 2012-1069, -1070, -1071, -1072 / SYNQOR V. A.RTESYN TECH 2 Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in case no. 07-CV-049'7, Judge T. John Ward. ON MOTION Bef0re MO0RE, Circuit Judge. t 0 R D E R Be1 Fuse et a1. and Murata Manfacturing Co., Ltd. each move to stay these appeals pending the inter parties reexaminations of the patents-in-suit. SynQor, Inc. opposes. Bel Fuse and Murata reply. _ These motions arise out of a complaint brought by SynQor in the United States District Court for the East- ern District of Texas in November 2007, charging the defendants-appellants with infringement of Hve patents, including (1) U.S. Patent No. 7,072,19O (the ’190 patent); (2) U.S. Patent No. 7,269,034 (the ’034 patent); (3) U.S. Patent No. '7,272,021 (the ’021 patent); (4) U.S. Patent No. 7,558,083 (the `083 patent); and (5) U.S. Patent No. 7,564,702 (the '702 patent). A jury found that the appel- lants had infringed each patent and awarded damages. The case is currently on appeal before this court, although additional proceedings remain pending below. Defendant Murata filed a petition for inter parties re- examination of several claims of the ’19U and '021 patents in August 2009 and reexamination petitions for the remaining three patents were filed in 2G10. Bel Fuse seeks a stay pending completion of the reexamination of only the 021 and 190 patents, which l\/Iurata expects to be completed "in approximately 10 to 14 m0nths." According to the appellants, in the reexaminations of the ’190 and 3 SYNQOR V. ARTESYN TECH ’021 proceedings, in its first level of review, the PTO has rejected all claims being examined and SynQor has filed an appeal seeking review by the BPAI. The power of the Court to stay proceedings is inciden- tal to its inherent power to control the disposition of the cases on its docket. See Landis u. North Am. Co., 299 U.S. 248, 254 (1936). Here, we cannot say the appellants have shown that staying proceedings for such a lengthy period of time is warranted Bel Fuse and Murata’s reliance on this cou1’t’s decision in Stcmdard Hcwens Prpds., Inc. v. Gencor Indus., 996 F.2d 1236 (Fed. Cir. 1993) to support a contrary conclusion is unpersuasive. This court in Standard Haven,s directed the district court to stay its damages proceedings until the PTO reexamination proceeding became final In that case, the PTO’s proceedings were complete and the decision of the BPAI was on appeal before another district court. Here, however, the court is being asked to stay proceedings at the relative end of the litigation process pending a lengthy administrative process that even the appellants predict will take at least 10-14 months to complete Under these circumstances, we deem it appropriate to deny the mo- tions to stay. Accordingly, IT ls OR1)ERE1) THAT: The motions to stay are denied FoR THE CoURT 3 1 /s/ Jan Horbaly Date J an Horbaly Clerk FlLED U.S. COURT 0F APPEALS FOR T|~lE FEDERAL C|RCUIT JAN 31 2012 JAN HOBBAL¥ / conn SY`NQOR V. ARTESYN TECH cc' s19 Donald R. D_unner, Esq. Constantine L. Trela, Jr., Esq Gary M. Hnath, Esq. Alan D. Smith, Esq. Eric W. Benisek, Esq. William F. Lee, Esq.