Recent Successes 2006 Archive
March 15, 2006
In a March 15, 2006 memorandum opinion, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed an adverse judgment against Fitch Even client, The Chamberlain Group, Inc., the nation's leading garage door opener manufacturer. Chamberlain was sued by Microchip Technology Incorporated in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. Microchip sought a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, invalidity and breach of a license agreement regarding several of Chamberlain's patents protecting its remote control technology. Chamberlain denied all allegations, and further denied that there was any justiciable controversy between the parties.
The District Court found that there was a justiciable controversy between the parties and, after several years of pretrial proceedings, granted summary judgment on all three grounds in favor of Microchip. Chamberlain appealed, and the Federal Circuit agreed with Chamberlain that there was no justiciable controversy. The Federal Circuit vacated the district court's entry of summary judgment in its entirety and remanded the action to the District Court with instructions to dismiss the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on the lack of a justiciable controversy.
Chamberlain is represented by Karl Fink, Rudy Kratz and John Flannery.
