Shibuya Sheds $38 Million Patent Loss With Noninfringement Order

Bottler Shibuya Hoppmann Corp. and dairy company HP Hood LLC convinced a federal judge in Delaware that the aseptic bottling machines underlying a jury’s $38 million award don’t infringe three Steuben Foods Inc. patents as jurors had found.

If the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacates his noninfringement judgment, Judge Colm F. Connolly said he would grant Shibuya’s request for a new trial because the jury’s infringement findings “are contrary to the evidence.”

But the judge denied Shibuya’s request to invalidate the patents, saying the company had waived its arguments on this issue because it didn’t raise ...