US Supreme Court Rules For SEB In Deep Fryer Patent Case
May 31 2011 - 11:47AM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a patent-infringement
verdict against Pentalpha Enterprises, a subsidiary of Global-Tech
Advanced Innovations Inc. (GAI), for creating a household deep
fryer that infringed a patent held by French appliance company SEB
SA (SK.FR).
The court, in an 8-1 opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito,
rejected Pentalpha's argument that it couldn't be held liable for
patent infringement because it didn't know of the SEB patent when
it began selling the product.
Alito said the evidence in the case was sufficient to show that
Pentalpha was willfully blind to the patent because it "took
deliberate steps to avoid knowing" that the SEB fryer was
patented.
At issue were SEB allegations that Pentalpha copied its design
for making a deep fryer with an outer plastic shell that stayed
cool to the touch. Pentalpha sold the allegedly infringing deep
fryers to Sunbeam Products Inc., Montgomery Ward and Fingerhut
Corp.
SEB said Pentalpha was deliberately indifferent as to whether
such a patent existed and should not get off the hook for ignoring
such legal risks.
A jury ruled in 2006 that Pentalpha infringed the SEB patent
directly and also induced others to commit patent infringement.
Pentalpha said a trial judge later ordered it to pay $4.9
million.
The Supreme Court took the case to clarify a legal standard for
when one party can be held liable for inducing another party to
commit patent infringement.
Justice Anthony Kennedy was the lone dissenter to Tuesday's
ruling.
The case is Global-Tech Appliances Inc. v. SEB S.A., 10-6.
-By Brent Kendall, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9222;
brent.kendall@dowjones.com
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