Metalcraft of Mayville v. Toro was decided on February 16, 2017 on appeal from the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The patent relates to a system for ride-on lawnmowers. The district court granted plaintiff Metalcraft a preliminary injunction enjoining defendant Toro from making, using, selling, and offering to sell lawnmowers equipped with the patented system. Toro appealed.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the preliminary injunction grant.
The Federal Circuit reviews the grant or denial of a preliminary injunction using the law of the regional circuit, here the Seventh. The district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the preliminary injunction.
Metalcraft was likely to succeed on the merits. The district court didn’t abuse its discretion in rejecting Toro’s noninfringement and obviousness defenses, and in determining that Metalcraft had established a likelihood of success on infringement.
Metalcraft was likely to suffer irreparable harm absent the preliminary injunction. When injury caused by infringement cannot be quantified, no amount of money damages is calculable, and thus the harm cannot be adequately compensated and is irreparable. Because it’s impossible to quantify the damages caused by the loss of a potential lifelong customer, the loss is irreparable. Here, there was evidence that some customers “prefer to purchase an entire line of products from the same manufacturer for consistency.” Metalcraft’s loss of these customers “may have far-reaching, long-term impact on its future revenues, and the sales lost … are difficult to quantify due to ecosystem effects, where one company’s customers will continue to buy that company’s products and recommend them to others.” Because of its “variable and uncertain nature, this loss is very difficult to calculate,” and is thus irreparable. The finding of irreparable harm was not negated by the fact that “twelve other companies” have infringing lawnmowers that compete with Metalcraft’s.
The balance of the equities and the public interest favored the injunction. In the absence of an injunction, Metalcraft would “face substantial hardship in being forced to compete against its own patented invention.” Because of “the importance of encouraging innovation,” and because the public can continue to obtain the patented system from Metalcraft or other non-infringing mowers from Toro, the public interest favored the injunction. The district court did not abuse its discretion in so holding.
The order enjoining Toro “from making, using, selling, and offering to sell lawnmowers equipped with the [system] that infringe [the asserted patent]” was not overly broad. The Federal Circuit has found as overly broad an injunction that “simply prohibits future infringement of a patent.” The injunction here, however, discussed “both the claims at issue as well as the defendant’s accused products which it enjoine[d].” So it was not over broad under FRCP 65(d)(1).
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