Word-Limit Snag Means Curtain Seller Can’t Shed Patent Liability

An appellate legal team’s violation of a word-limit rule leaves its client, a seller of hookless shower curtains, liable for patent infringement damages, the Federal Circuit ruled, even as the court wiped out liability for a fellow defendant who sold a nearly identical product.

The appeals court faulted Kartri Sales Co.'s reliance on codefendant Marquis Mills International Inc.'s appellate brief to make arguments against awards totaling almost $3 million for patent and trade dress infringement. The two had sought to incorporate by reference large swaths of each other’s arguments—Kartri attacking district court rulings on trademark and trade dress while Marquis ...