Deeproot Green Infrastructure, LLC v. Greenblue Urban North America Inc.

Deeproot Green Infrastructure, LLC v. Greenblue Urban North America Inc.

The Court construed the claims purposively (POSITA: multi-disciplinary team including a landscape architect with a master's and a civil engineer; common general knowledge as of publication August 4, 2005), found the essential elements of the 348 and 599 Patents and that GreenBlue's RootSpace product contains those elements, rejected GreenBlue's invalidity defenses (anticipation, enablement, obviousness, ambiguity, overbreadth and section 53 allegations), held the patents valid and infringed, and granted a permanent injunction and a reasonable per-unit royalty of CAD 136,000 total (per the Court's chosen rate of $0.94 per unit aggregated to $136,000).

Citation
2021 FC 501
Parties
Plaintiff/defendant by Counterclaim: DEEPROOT GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE, LLC; Plaintiff/defendant by Counterclaim: DEEPROOT CANADA CORP.; Defendant/plaintiff by Counterclaim: GREENBLUE URBAN NORTH AMERICA INC.
Court
Federal Court
Jurisdiction
Canada
Judgment Date
16 July 2021
Procedural Posture
Patent Infringement / Validity / Trial Judgment
Outcome
Judgment for plaintiffs: Canada Patent 2,552,348 (claims 1-5,7-8,11-14,16-20,22-24) and Canada Patent 2,829,599 (claims 1-4) held valid and infringed; defendant's counterclaim dismissed; permanent injunction granted; royalty awarded; plaintiffs awarded costs.
Legal Topics
Infringement, Validity, Claim Construction, Remedies, Damages, Injunction
Source Language
English
Intellectual Property Patent Law Civil Litigation Infringement Validity Claim Construction Remedies Damages +1 more

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Parties

DEEPROOT GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE, LLC

Plaintiff/defendant by Counterclaim

DEEPROOT CANADA CORP.

Plaintiff/defendant by Counterclaim

GREENBLUE URBAN NORTH AMERICA INC.

Defendant/plaintiff by Counterclaim

Procedural Posture

Patent Infringement / Validity / Trial Judgment

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Proper construction of claims of Canada Patents 2,552,348 and 2,829,599 (POSITA and common general knowledge)
  2. 2 Whether GreenBlue's RootSpace product infringes asserted claims of the 348 and 599 Patents
  3. 3 Validity challenges: anticipation, enablement, obviousness, ambiguity, overbreadth, insufficiency, speculative amendments, section 53 Patent Act

Ratio Decidendi

The Court construed the claims purposively (POSITA: multi-disciplinary team including a landscape architect with a master's and a civil engineer; common general knowledge as of publication August 4, 2005), found the essential elements of the 348 and 599 Patents and that GreenBlue's RootSpace product contains those elements, rejected GreenBlue's invalidity defenses (anticipation, enablement, obviousness, ambiguity, overbreadth and section 53 allegations), held the patents valid and infringed, and granted a permanent injunction and a reasonable per-unit royalty of CAD 136,000 total (per the Court's chosen rate of $0.94 per unit aggregated to $136,000).

Court Disposition

Judgment for plaintiffs: Canada Patent 2,552,348 (claims 1-5,7-8,11-14,16-20,22-24) and Canada Patent 2,829,599 (claims 1-4) held valid and infringed; defendant's counterclaim dismissed; permanent injunction granted; royalty awarded; plaintiffs awarded costs.

Orders

  • Claims 1-5,7-8,11-14,16-20,22-24 of Canada Patent No. 2,552,348 are valid and infringed by Defendant's RootSpace
  • Claims 1-4 of Canada Patent No. 2,829,599 are valid and infringed by Defendant's RootSpace