SAN DIEGO – A Virginia corporation that manufactures tools for firearm reloading alleges a San Diego resident has wrongfully accused it of patent infringement.
Ballistic Tools Inc. filed a complaint on Nov. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against John Lang Sluder seeking declaratory judgment of infringement.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that, Ballistic Tools Inc. is being wrongfully accused for infringing the defendant's '628 patent through plaintiff's Swage Gage product. The plaintiff alleges that it was unaware of the patent until the defendant's counsel threatened plaintiff with litigation and continued harassment.
The suit states that the plaintiff responded that its accused product was actually disclosed in an internet publication dated Aug. 19, 2013, before the defendant even acquired patent '628 on Oct. 21, 2013, thus rendering defendant's patent and accusation as invalid.
The plaintiff holds Sluder responsible because the defendant allegedly subjected plaintiff and the public to baseless claims, annoyance and threat of litigation, and engaged in a pattern and practice of improper activity to acquire and assert his patent in bad faith.
The plaintiff requests judgment be entered in its favor, declaratory relief, costs, expenses, disbursements, attorney's fees and further relief as the court may deem just. It is represented by Arash Samadani of Samadani Law APC in Santa Ana.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Case number 3:16-cv-02744