DSU Medical Corporation v. JMS Company, Ltd.
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
471 F.3d 1293 (2006)
DSU (plaintiff) held patents on a guarded winged-needle assembly designed to reduce needle-stick injuries. ITL (defendant) manufactured a clamshell needle guard, the Platypus, sold without a needle, and its distributor JMS (defendant) sold the guard together with needle sets. DSU sued both for infringement; the district court found the patent claim required a needle always be present, so the needle-less Platypus alone did not infringe, but that closing the guard over a needle set did infringe certain claims. The jury found JMS directly and contributorily infringed (awarding over $5 million), but found ITL did not infringe and was not contributorily liable, since ITL itself only ever sold the Platypus in the U.S. in its open, non-infringing configuration.
Whether contributory infringement requires a plaintiff to show a direct nexus to a specific act of direct infringement, and whether inducement to infringe requires proof of specific intent and active steps to encourage direct infringement.