Industrial Models, Inc. v. SNF, Inc., et al.

Whether ordinary plausible fact pleading of objective baselessness is sufficient under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) to satisfy the “objectively baseless” prong of Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., 508 U.S. 49 (1993), in a Sherman Act complaint alleging “sham” intellectual property litigation.

Whether the Federal Circuit erred by holding that Petitioner’s Sherman Act complaint lacks sufficient pleading of objective baselessness, where the complaint states that Respondents, in their predicate “trade dress infringement” litigation against Petitioner, alleged “infringement” despite knowing they had no relevant trade dress and persistently failing to identify any trade dress, and where the Federal Circuit left undisturbed the district court’s non-infringement and “exceptional case” finding that “[Respondents] could not identify any relevant trade dress . . . .”

Whether an express threat of objectively baseless litigation fails to support a Sherman Act claim alleging “sham litigation” as the Federal Circuit held with respect to defendants’ patent and copyright litigation threats against Petitioner, or whether such a threat suffices, as the First Circuit has held.

Whether the Federal Circuit erred by affirming denial of Petitioner’s Rule 15(a)(2) motion for leave to amend the complaint, based on (a) an undue-delay theory contradicted by precedent of this Court as recognized by the Second and Seventh Circuits, and (b) a first-instance “futility” inquiry and finding of a kind held unlawful by the First, Seventh and Ninth Circuits.