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Foreign F.O.B. Shipment of Infringing Product Does Not Defeat Federal Subject Matter Jurisdiction

By Judith L. Grubner
July 30, 2008

F.o.b. or 'free on board' is a shipping method under which goods are delivered at a designated location where legal title (and thus the risk of loss) passes from the seller to the buyer. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has determined that a trial court does not lose subject matter jurisdiction over a patent or copyright infringement case where all sales of accused products to U.S. customers were made f.o.b. in Canada by a Canadian corporation. Litecubes, LLC v. Northern Light Prods., Inc., ___ F.3d ____ (Fed. Cir. 2008). Whether a defendant 'makes, uses, offers to sell or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention' is a factual element required to prove patent infringement, but does not affect federal subject matter jurisdiction.

Background

The inventor/owner Carl Vanderschuit and the licensee Litecubes, LLC of U.S. Patent No. 6,416,198 (the ”198 patent') sued Northern Light Products, Inc. (d/b/a GlowProducts.com), a Canadian corporation located in Victoria,

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