Patent infringement complaint filed at federal court in Philadelphia

A German man has filed a federal patent infringement lawsuit in Philadelphia against a Michigan company, alleging that the U.S. tool-making business has been fraudulently using a technology over which the plaintiff holds exclusive rights.

Lancaster, Pa., attorneys Kevin M. French and Joshua D. Cohen, of the law firm of Hartman Underhill & Brubaker LLP, filed the complaint Sept. 22 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Thomas Ropke, who resides in Germany.

Named as defendant in the lawsuit is Michigan-based Affordable Tools LLC.

According to the complaint, Ropke owns a U.S. patent titled “Rolling and Flanging Tool To Bend Back and/or Widen Fender-Wheel Well Edges," which was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Feb. 6, 1996.

The defendant, the suit states, makes, uses and sells products that infringe on one or more claims of the plaintiff’s patent including, but not limited to, the manufacture, use and sale of a tool identified as “Dragway Tools 6001 Fender Roller Lip Flaring and Rolling Tool."

The lawsuit claims that the defendant’s infringement of the plaintiff’s patent is “willful, intentional and deliberate,” and that the plaintiff has been injured as a result of the infringing acts of the defendant.

Ropke seeks judgment in the form of an injunction preventing further acts of infringement, unspecified compensatory damages, attorney’s fees and other court relief.

A jury trial was not requested.

The federal case number is 2:11-cv-05992-JD.