By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Leonard P. Stark in Ateliers De La Haute-Garonne, et al. v. Broetje Automation-USA Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 09-598-LPS (D.Del., October 13, 2011), the Court denied the motion of defendants Broetje Automation-USA, Inc. and Bröetje-Automation GMBH to dismiss plaintiffs’ first claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. In their motion, defendants asserted that the Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over U.S. Patent No, 5,011,339 (“the ‘339 patent”) because the Applicants’ check to cover the issue fee bounced and, thus, the patent should be regarded as abandoned under 35 U.S.C. § 151 for failure to timely pay the required issue fee. Id. at 2. However, after considering the parties’ respective arguments and the evidence presented in the parties’ briefing and oral arguments, the Court concluded that plaintiffs established by a preponderance of the evidence that the issue fee was paid. Id. Thus, the ‘339 patent was not abandoned and the motion was denied.  Id. at 5.

A copy of the Court’s Memorandum Opinion is attached.