Judge Albright Denies Amazon’s and Target’s Rule 12(c) Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings Under the Kessler Doctrine

On August 8, 2022, Defendant Amazon.Com, Inc. (Amazon) and Defendant Target Corporation (Target) both filed Rule 12(c) Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings. Both Amazon and Target argued that under the Kessler doctrine, Plaintiff Advanced Aerodynamics, LLC’s (AA) claims were exhausted because AA’s earlier action against Spin Master, Ltd. for the same infringing activities was dismissed with prejudice.

The Kessler doctrine prevents a patentee from reasserting previously litigated claims or issues against a defendant or its customers following a finding of non-infringement. Kessler v. Eldred, 206 U.S. 285, 289–90 (1907). A patent infringement claim is precluded under the Kessler doctrine when (1) the defendant is an adjudged non-infringer and (2) the earlier judgment held that essentially the same accused activity did not infringe the patent. The Kessler doctrine extends to customers of a seller who had previously prevailed against the patentee.

On October 28, 2022, Judge Albright denied both Amazon’s and Target’s Rule 12(c) motions in separate opinions. In doing so, Judge Albright concluded that Amazon and Target had failed to satisfy the first requirement of the Kessler doctrine, which requires a showing that the defendant was an “adjudged non-infringer.” More specifically, Judge Albright found that Amazon and Target had failed to show that they were customers of Spin Master, Ltd. in a seller-customer relationship.   

Because the Court could not find any cases where a court had extended the Kessler doctrine to defendants that were not customers of the adjudged non-infringer in the previous litigation, Judge Albright denied Amazon’s and Target’s Rule 12(c) motions for failure to show a seller-customer relationship with Spin Master, Ltd.

Ryan Bradley, a Law Clerk in Winston’s Chicago office, assisted with this briefing.