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Larry Golden v. Apple Inc.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2020-1508 · judgment September 3, 2020


Certiorari denied · January 11, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Question presented

At a minimum, I need only show three things in order to have standing to sue: (1) that I have suffered an “injury in fact”; (2) that the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) that it is likely that a favorable decision will fully redress the injury. See, for example, Lujan v Defenders of Wildlife, 112 S Ct 2130, 2136 (1992). These three requirements are derived from Article III of the Constitution, which limits the judicial power to “Cases” and “Controversies.” US Const, Art I, § 2. They must be shown “at a minimum” because prudential requirements of standing might also limit plaintiffs. Patents are only valuable if they can be enforced, so any “unjustified” decisions made on valid patents by the Courts, that make enforcing a patent virtually impossible, more expensive and less certain as to the outcome, harms the patent owner and undermines the ability of the U.S. economy to protect inventors’ rights. The Second Circuit has decided that it is not the district court's task in reviewing a motion to dismiss to decide between two plausible inferences that may be drawn from the factual allegations in the complaint: “A court ruling on such a motion may not properly dismiss a complaint that states a plausible version of the events merely because the court finds a different version more plausible.” Anderson News, L.L.C. v. Am. Media, Inc., 680 F.3d 162, 185 (2d Cir. 2012), cert, denied, 133 S. Ct. 846 (2013). Even after Twombly and Iqbal, “in determining whether a complaint states a claim that is plausible, the court is required to proceed ‘on the assumption that all the [factual] allegations in the complaint are true’, [e]ven if their truth seems doubtful.” Id. at 185 (court's emphasis) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556).

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Larry Golden

For respondent

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 11 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 23 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/8/2021.
  3. Oct 31 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 10, 2020)