Antitrust Violation

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: ABS Global, Inc. v. Inguran, LLC

Case No.: 17-1873

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and EASTERBROOK and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Antitrust Violation

This case is about the birds and the bees—in particular, about human efforts to control the reproductive outcomes otherwise determined by Mother Nature. Our specific interest is the cattle industry. Until recently, Inguran, LLC, which does business as Sexing Technologies (“Sexing Tech”), held a monopoly on the market for sexed cattle semen in the United States. ABS Global, Inc., which runs a large bull-stud operation, hoped to change that. Believing that its efforts had been thwarted in ways that violated the antitrust laws, ABS sued Sexing Tech in the Western District of Wisconsin in 2014. It alleged, among other things, that Sexing Tech had unlawfully monopolized the domestic sexed-semen market in violation of section 2 of the Sherman Act by using its market power to impose coercive contract terms. ABS sought a declaratory judgment proclaiming those contracts invalid, hoping to clear the way for its own entry into that market. Sexing Tech, along with its subsidiary, XY, LLC, (we use “Sexing Tech” to describe them collectively unless the distinction matters) counterclaimed that ABS infringed its patents and breached the contract between them by misappropriating trade secrets in developing ABS’s competing technology. Both sides also added state-law theories to the mix.

In the end, only three claims went to trial: ABS’s antitrust claim and Sexing Tech’s patent infringement and breach of contract counterclaims. After a nearly two-week trial, the jury returned a mixed—and somewhat puzzling—verdict, which the court ratified in post-trial rulings. We conclude, as did the district court, that ABS violated a confidentiality agreement it had with Sexing Tech, and that Sexing Tech’s patent was not invalid on obviousness grounds. The jury’s assessments of two of the three patent claims still at issue, however, cannot be reconciled under the rules governing dependent claims and enablement, and so a new trial is necessary on them.

The district court’s decision denying ABS’s motion for judgment as a matter of law on the ground that the ’987 patent fails for obviousness is AFFIRMED. We also AFFIRM the court’s denial of ABS’s motion for judgment as a matter of law on the breach of the confidentiality agreement. We conclude that the jury’s verdicts with respect to the enablement of Claims 1 and 2 are irreconcilably inconsistent. We therefore REVERSE the denial of ABS’s motion for a new trial on the ’987 patent and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Each side will bear its own costs on appeal.

Affirmed in part. Reversed and Remanded in part.

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.