JM Enterprises, Inc. v. The Ames Companies, Inc

Brooks Kushman represented AMES Companies, Inc., the leading U.S. manufacturer of lawn and garden tools, in a patent infringement action brought by JM Enterprises, Inc. The plaintiff alleged that AMES’ shovel products infringed a patent covering technology for attaching handles to shovel blades. After evaluating the asserted patent and AMES products, Brooks Kushman planned a strategy of moving for summary judgment at a very early stage of the case, and encouraging the court to address claim construction issues as part of that motion.

Soon after JM Enterprises filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in December 2016, Brooks Kushman successfully moved to transfer venue of the action to the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where AMES is located, based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Grp. Brands LLC, 137 S. Ct. 1514 (2017). We then filed a motion for summary judgment of noninfringement. On January 18, 2018, District Judge John E. Jones, III granted AMES’ motion for summary judgment, ruling that AMES’ products did not infringe as a matter of law. Thus, AMES received a successful result less than four months after the case was transferred to a more favorable forum.

Team Members include: Marc Lorelli and Todd Dishman