Corp_Buyer--IDCC's appeal of Judge Lynn's rulings on intervention and on reinstating the partial summary judgment will be interesting in that the appeal is before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, a special appellate court that has universal jurisdiction over patent appeals from federal district courts. Most appeals from federal district courts go to the circuit court of appeals based on the geography of where the district court is located. Patent appeals are handled differently because of Congress' view that there should be a more uniform nationwide patent law. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals will look at Judge Lynn's rulings with an eye on the impact that her rulings would have on patent cases throughout the country. In other words, would you want to allow new parties to intervene reatively freely after a case has been litigated for a long time and then basically upset settlement agreements by reinstating rulings that the parties had agreed to vacate. I have a feeling that the Federal Circuit may not agree with Judge Lynn's rulings.
There is another issue that is raised as well. Even if the Partial Summary Judgement is allowed to stand, what impact does it have? For another party to use that Ericy partial summary judgment decision in another case against IDCC, it would have to apply a doctrine that is known as collateral estoppel. Under the rulings of the Federal Circuit that I recall from years ago (I don't want to do the research to post the cases now given the fact that the appeal has not been heard) dealing with collateral estoppel, Nokia (and others) might not be able to use the Partial Summary Judgment ruling against IDCC even if it is allowed to stand.
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