In BAE Sys. Info. and Elec. Sys. Integration Inc. v. Aeroflex Inc., C.A. No. 09-769-LPS (July 23, 2012), Judge Stark denied defendants’ Rule 11 sanctions motion, filed after Judge Stark granted defendants’ summary judgment motion of noninfringement pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1498 and summary judgment motion on plaintiff’s remaining state law claims on statute of limitiations grounds. Id. at 1-5. Defendants argued that Rule 11 sanctions were appropriate because plaintiff’ brought a “knowingly frivolous” and “baseless” patent infringement action against defendants. Id. at 5-7. Judge Stark disagreed. Specifically, defendants did not prove that plaintiff’s proposed claim constructions supporting its claims were not reasonable. “While [defendants] proposed an alternative construction . . . that proves only that there was a dispute, not that [plaintiff] was frivolous in its advocacy.” Id. at 9 (emphasis in original).
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