Judge’s sanction in gun IP suit decries ‘peevishness’

An intellectual property lawsuit between gunmakers “has grown into a Dickensian monstrosity,” a federal judge wrote Friday, criticizing parties for “peevishness.”

Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana made the observations in an order on a motion for sanctions in Heckler & Koch, Inc. et al v. German Sport Guns GMBH et al, 1:11-CV-01108.

Gunmaker Heckler & Koch Inc. manufactures the MP5 submachine gun and sued German Sport Guns GMHB and American Tactical Imports Inc., alleging the defendants’ GSG-522 firearm infringed on its trade dress, copying particular design elements of gun parts. The defendants countersued, and more than 500 filings have been entered in the case record. Magistrate Tim Baker in May took aim at lawyers he said were slowing the case.

Barker granted defendants’ motion for sanctions, limited to admonishment of plaintiff counsel Jonathan Polak, plus fees for filing the sanctions motion. The motion alleged plaintiffs created a new fact about the timing of an assignment at issue in the case.

But Barker also sounded off about the conduct of the case as a whole, citing to Charles Dickens’ interminable Jarndyce and Jarndyce litigation at the center of his 1853 novel “Bleak House.”

“The parties’ claims and counterclaims raised sensitive questions of law and fact — questions whose resolution demands not only zealous advocacy, but also good faith. While zeal has abounded, good faith has been in short supply,” Barker wrote. “The parties have piled motion on motion and objection on objection; the peevishness pervading their submissions has taxed the Court’s patience just as surely as it has depleted our reserves of ink and paper. But the case grinds onward, and so must we.”

Noting the parties have been unable to agree on a trial date and multiple other procedural disputes remain, Barker noted the court’s “fond, perhaps far-fetched, hope that the parties might experience a new birth of comity — and make further progress on their own towards bringing this lawsuit to a just and efficient resolution.”