CAFC reverses MD Ga on "failure to state a claim" in Disc Disease Solutions; form 18 and Iqbal/Twombly

The outcome:



The district court erred when it
dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. We
reverse the district court’s grant of the motion to dismiss
and remand for further proceedings.


This case, in part, relates to "Form 18":


On November 30, 2015, Disc Disease Solutions Inc.
(“Disc Disease”) filed a complaint for patent infringement
alleging that VGH Solutions’ products infringe the ’113
and ’509 patents. The complaint specifically identified
VGH Solutions’ products and alleged that the products
meet “each and every element of at least one claim of the
’113 [or ’509] Patent, either literally or equivalently.” J.A.
54–55. Disc Disease attached to the complaint the asserted
patents and photographs of the accused products.

The following day, on December 1, 2015, amendments
to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect, abrogating
Rule 84 and Form 18. Supreme Court of the
United States, Order Regarding Amendments to the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (U.S. Apr. 29, 2015).1
The Supreme Court’s abrogation order states that the
amendments “shall govern in all proceedings in civil cases
thereafter commenced and, insofar as just and practicable,
all proceedings then pending.” Id. Rule 84 provided
that “[t]he Forms in the Appendix suffice under these
rules and illustrate the simplicity and brevity that these
rules contemplate.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 84 (2007) (abrogated,
eff. Dec. 1, 2015). Form 18 in the Appendix of Forms
provided a form adequate to plead a direct infringement
patent claim



The CAFC wrote:


The district court determined that Disc Disease failed
to “explain how Defendants’ products infringe on any of
Plaintiff’s claims” because it “merely alleges that certain
of Defendants’ products ‘meet each and every element of
at least one claim’ of Plaintiff’s patents.” Disc Disease,
2016 WL 6561566, at *3. We disagree. Disc Disease’s
allegations are sufficient under the plausibility standard
of Iqbal/Twombly. This case involves a simple technology.
The asserted patents, which were attached to the
complaint, consist of only four independent claims. The
complaint specifically identified the three accused products—by
name and by attaching photos of the product
packaging as exhibits—and alleged that the accused
products meet “each and every element of at least one
claim of the ’113 [or ’509] Patent, either literally or equivalently.”
J.A. 54–55. These disclosures and allegations
are enough to provide VGH Solutions fair notice of infringement
of the asserted patents. The district court,
therefore, erred in dismissing Disc Disease’s complaint for
failure to state a claim.



It is important to read footnote 3:


We do not address the question of whether the
Form 18 or the Iqbal/Twombly pleading standard applies
in this case as we conclude that Disc Disease’s claims of
patent infringement were sufficiently pleaded under the
latter. See Lifetime Indus., Inc. v. Trim-Lok, Inc., 869
F.3d 1372, 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (“The parties assume
that there is a difference between the requirements of
Form 18 and Iqbal/Twombly; however, we have never
recognized such a distinction. In any event, we need not
resolve the question whether there is a difference between
the two standards here because, as we explain, the [complaint]
met the Iqbal/Twombly standard.” (citation omitted).