Simonian v. Bunn-O-Matic Corp., No. 10 C 1203, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 23, 2010) (Zagel, J.).
Judge Zagel stayed plaintiff Simonian’s false patent marking case pending the Federal Circuit’s standing decision in Stauffer – which has since issued, holding that any person has standing without regard to injury in fact.
The Court also indicated that, once the stay was lifted, it would deny defendant’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss Simonian’s complaint for failure to adequately plead intent to deceive pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b). Simonian pled that defendant knowingly marked its coffeemakers with expired patents. That was sufficient to meet the rebuttable presumption of intent as set out in Solo Cup. It did not matter that Simonian’s claims were generic as evidenced by the use of nearly identical allegations in more than forty false patent marking cases Simonian had filed in the Northern District of Illinois.