ROTEC INDUSTRIES, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MITSUBISHI CORPORATION, TUCKER ASSOCIATES, INC. and GARRY TUCKER, Defendants-Appellees, and MITSUBISHI INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee., 215 F.3d 1246

Plaintiff manufactured crane and conveyor systems designed to carry concrete over long distances. Plaintiff was the assignee of record of a patent, which disclosed a tower crane supported articulated concrete conveyor belt system. Defendants bid for a contract with the Chinese government to work on a concrete placing system. One of defendants' alternative systems included a design for the use of cranes and conveyors. Plaintiff sued defendants, claiming an infringement of its patent by making an offer for sale of the invention in violation of 35 U.S.C.S. §§ 271(a), 271(f) (1994). There was no genuine dispute of any material fact on the issue of § 271(a) liability for an offer to sell, and defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The record contained no evidence that any of the defendants supplied or caused to supply any component of a patented invention in or from the United States. Thus, the district court correctly dismissed the claims.