Resh, Inc v. Skimlite Manufacturing Inc

I. BACKGROUND

19 Defendant Robert Conrad, Inc., d/b/a Skimlite Manufacturing (“Skimlite”), is a California 20 corporation principally owned by Defendants James and Barrett Conrad (father and son, 21 respectively). Pl. CC Br. 1–2. Skimlite has been selling and manufacturing swimming pool poles 22 since the 1950s, primarily poles that utilize twisting and clamping technology to extend and lock 23 the poles’ lengths. First Am. Compl. (“FAC”) ¶¶ 49–51. 24 Plaintiff Resh, Inc. (“Resh”) is a California corporation run by husband and wife, Eric and 25 Jenel Gonzalez Resh. FAC ¶ 2. Eric Resh started working as a pool man in the late 1980s 26 cleaning other people’s swimming pools and has since “invented and patented a number of 27 improved swimming pool tools to assist pool men as well as homeowners.” Pl. CC Br. 2. This includes the patent-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 11,141,852 invention for “Telepole Apparatus and Related Methods.” Resh’s pool poles use a button and detent to extend and lock the pole length instead of twisting and untwisting like Skimlite’s poles. The Complaint alleges that Skimlite had been manufacturing “twist-and-clamp” pool poles for…