This article appeared in The Intellectual Property Strategist, an ALM/Law Journal Newsletters publication that provides a practical source of both business and litigation tactics in the fast-changing area of intellectual property law, including litigating IP rights, patent damages, venue and infringement issues, inter partes review, trademarks on social media – and more.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a declaratory judgment action based on the “abstention doctrine,” despite the declaratory judgment plaintiff’s insistence that the underlying contract dispute required resolution of patent validity and claim scope that were within the federal courts’ exclusive purview. Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., et al. v. Sasso, 977 F.3d 1224 (Fed. Cir. 2020). The decision in Warsaw Orthopedic provides guidance to litigants with claims involving both state and federal issues and attempts to resolve competing Supreme Court standards governing application of the abstention doctrine.
