Vineyard Investigations v. E. & J. Gallo Winery

I. BACKGROUND

23 On October 1, 2019, Vineyard Investigations filed a patent infringement complaint against 24 E. & J. Gallo Winery (Doc. 1) and amended the complaint on October 22, 2021 (Doc. 52). 25 Plaintiff’s first amended complaint alleged Defendant infringed three patents, United States 26 Patent Nos.: 8,528,834 (‘834 Patent); 6,947,810 (‘810 Patent); and 10,645,881 (‘881 Patent). 27 (Doc. 52 at 2.) The three patents-in-suit “relate to automated irrigation and dispensing of 28 1 chemicals to crops using data and rules received from sensors and other sources of information” 2 and “claim priority to the same application, Application No. 09/872,477 (the ‘477 Application)” 3 which named Dr. Paul Skinner as the inventor. (Doc. 61 at 8.) The ‘477 Application was filed in 4 2001 by patent attorney Charles Kulas. (Id.) 5 Defendant timely filed its Answer (Doc. 54) and asserted “seven counterclaims for 6 declaratory judgment of noninfringement and invalidity” of Patent ‘834, Patent ‘810, and Patent 7 ‘881 (“Asserted Patents”), and “a counterclaim of inequitable conduct as to the Asserted Patents.” 8 (Doc. 61 at 11.) Defendant’s inequitable conduct counterclaim…