Supreme Court sides with SCA
By HME News Staff
Updated Tue March 28, 2017
STOCKHOLM - SCA says it has won an important victory in its seven-year patent infringement case against First Quality Products. A six-year statutory period of limitations, during which a patent infringement claim must be commenced, cannot be shortened based on the equitable doctrine known as laches, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 7-1 decision on March 21. The decision allows SCA to proceed with its claim for pre-suit damages, the company announced in a press release. “We are thrilled the Supreme Court ruled in our favor,” said Michael Freenan, vice president of sales and marketing for SCA Incontinence Care North America. “SCA can now pursue all of the damages to which it is entitled.” In 2010, SCA sued First Quality in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky for infringement of a patent covering adult incontinence products. A lower court dismissed SCA's claim for pre-suit damages in response to a petition by First Quality. Now that the Supreme Court has reversed that decision, the case returns to Kentucky for trial on both pre- and post-suit damages.
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