CAFC Rules on Golden Hour

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently decided Golden Hour Data systems v. emsCharts, Inc. This decision has implications on the evolving law for both joint infringement and inequitable conduct. Speaking on inequitable conduct the Federal Circuit held that the Plaintiffs withheld a material reference from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The reference was deemed material even though it was not found to be an invalidating reference by the jury in this case. The opinion ends with a very brief section on joint infringement in which the Federal Circuit stated that without a single party that controlled or directed the operation, there could be no joint infringement. The section on joint infringement is noteworthy in that before the verdict was reversed the defendants were found guilty of willful infringement, meaning that in effect the defendants had jointly colluded to infringe the patent in question, but they could not be found guilty of joint infringement without a single party directing their actions.