A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday reversed a Rhode Island district court’s decision to dismiss patent infringement claims from Tomy Co., a Japanese toy-making giant, against Summer Infant, a subsidiary of Kids2. The dispute centers on a patent for a toddler toy tub with a built-in seating surface.
The Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 that U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence had incorrectly defined the terms related to the seating surfaces covered by the Tomy patent. The court’s majority opinion, authored by U.S. Circuit Judge Leonard Stark, found that the Rhode Island court’s interpretation of the patent’s claims was overly narrow, particularly with regard to how the seating surfaces were linked to the tub’s other components.
Tomy, which owns the patent in question, had filed a counterclaim alleging that Summer Infant’s “Comfy Clean Deluxe Newborn to Toddler Tub” infringed on its intellectual property. Summer Infant had initially filed a declaratory judgment action in Rhode Island federal court, seeking a ruling that its tub did not infringe Tomy’s patent.
