by Dennis Crouch
This case involves design patent infringement claims over the "Wallet Ninja," a credit-card-sized multi-tool covered by U.S. Patent No. D751,877. Patentee Dynamite Marketing sued Sherman Specialty (d/b/a The WowLine, Inc.). The case was complicated by inventorship disputes involving LaErik Cooper, a mechanical engineer who assisted in developing the design but was not named as an inventor on the patent. A jury ultimately found that Cooper was not entitled to co-inventor status, that Sherman willfully infringed the valid patent through its competing "TOL4" product line, and awarded Dynamite $1,850,000 in lost profits damages. The district court then awarded $1.54 million in attorney fees, bringing the total judgment to over $3.5 million.
On appeal, the Federal Circuit dismissed Sherman's challenge to the inventorship determination because Sherman lacked standing to appeal that issue, since it was not a party to Cooper's inventorship counterclaim and Cooper himself did not appeal his loss. The court affirmed all other aspects of the district court's decision -- including a non-obviousness finding that survived even after the Federal Circuit's intervening LKQ decision changed the legal standard for design patent obviousness.