Mueller Water Wins as Judge Ends Home Smart-Meter Patent Case

A Mueller Water Products Inc. unit won a judgment that its smart water meters don’t infringe a Rein Tech Inc. patent for leak-detecting home water systems, ending their seven-year federal lawsuit a week before a scheduled jury trial.

Mueller Systems LLC’s remote-disconnect water meters don’t infringe US Patent No. 11,549,837, according to Judge Maryellen Noreika’s opinion issued Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. A jury trial had been set to begin Nov. 12.

• The judge said Rein Tech’s founder, Michael Klicpera, had been disqualified as an expert after violating a protective order and that ...