Silicon Wafer Technology: Reasonable Jury Could Find Inducement

MEMC Electronic Materials v. Mitsubishi Materials (Fed. Cir. 2005).

MEMC sued Mitsubishi for infringement of its patent directed to the preparation of high quality single crystal silicon for the semiconductor industry. The district court dismissed the claims on summary judgment — finding no evidence of infringement or inducement.

On appeal, the CAFC affirmed the rejection of the direct infringement claim, but reversed on inducement.  The panel found that the defendant (i) knew of the alleged direct infringer’s activities; (ii) provided technical support to the alleged direct infringer via e-mail; (iii) sent a shipment to the alleged direct infringer to address technical problems; (iv) visited the alleged direct infringer’s site to provide further technical support; and (v) knowledge of the patent itself. This record swayed the CAFC to reverse the district court’s holding that “a reasonable jury could not find intent to induce infringement.”

Specifically, the CAFC noted the series of e-mails provide “sufficient circumstantial evidence . . . that SUMCO intended to encourage those [potentially infringing] activities.”

File Attachment: MEMC Decision (104 KB)

As Cathy Kirkman notes in her excellent Silicon Valley Media Law Blog, the CAFC drew a parallel with the the recent Supreme Court Grokster copyright inducement opinion.  Quoting Grokster, the appellate court held that evidence such as “advertising an infringing use or instructing how to engage in an infringing use, show an affirmative intent that the product be used to infringe.”