Pacific Coast Building Products, Inc. v. CertainTeed Gypsum, Inc.

I. BACKGROUND

1 A. Background and Description of the ‘568 Patent 2 CertainTeed and Plaintiff are competitors in the drywall industry. In 2013, the original 3 assignee of the ‘568 patent application (filed in April 6, 2007) put its patent portfolio up for sale. 4 Opp’n at 3, ECF No. 169. Both CertainTeed and Plaintiff bid for the ‘568 patent, and Plaintiff won 5 the bid. Id. The ‘568 patent, titled “Acoustical Sound Proofing Material with Improved Fracture 6 Characteristics and Methods for Manufacturing Same,” issued on July 12, 2016. 7 The ’568 patent recognizes that prior art “laminated damped drywall panel,” which 8 provides noise damping, can replace traditional drywall in construction. ’568 Patent at 1:59–65. 9 However, laminated damped drywall panel cannot be easily cut to size at construction sites. Panels 10 often “must be scored multiple times and broken with great force over the edge of a table or 11 workbench.” Id. at 1:67–2:4. The reason laminated damped drywall panel is so difficult to break is 12 because “the component gypsum layers [of the panels] have a liner back paper (or liner fiberglass 13 nonwoven) that has a high tensile strength.” Id. at 2:6–10. The ‘568…