the Parallax Group International, LLC v. Incstores LLC

N OTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
THE PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL, LLC,
Plaintiff-Appellee
v.
INCSTORES LLC,
Defendant-Appellant
______________________
2024-1798
______________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
Central District of California in No. 8:16-cv-00929-JVS-
DFM, Judge James V. Selna.
______________________
Decided: March 20, 2026
______________________
J OHN D AVID VAN L OBEN SELS , Sideman & Bancroft
LLP, San Francisco, CA, argued for plaintiff-appellee.
MATTHEW A. P EQUIGNOT , Pequignot & Myers LLC, Ki-
lauea, HI, argued for defendant-appellant.
______________________
Case: 24-1798 Document: 51 Page: 1 Filed: 03/20/2026

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PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL , LLC v. INCSTORES LLC 2
Before M OORE, Chief Judge, CHEN, Circuit Judge, and
K LEEH , Chief District Judge.1
CHEN, Circuit Judge.
Defendant-Appellant Incstores (Incstores) LLC ap-
peals the United States District Court for the Central Dis-
trict of California’s denial of Incstores’s motion for
attorney’s fees. Parallax Grp. Int’l, LLC v. Incstores LLC,
No. 8:16-CV-929-JVS-DFMX, 2023 WL 9417497 (C.D. Cal.
Dec. 6, 2023) (Decision). Under 35 U.S.C. § 285, a district
court has the discretion, in “exceptional cases,” to award
reasonable attorney’s fees to a prevailing party in a patent
litigation. In denying Incstores’s motion, the district court
found that (1) Parallax Group International, LLC (Paral-
lax) was not liable for inequitable conduct, and (2) the cir-
cumstances did not support an exceptional case finding.
We affirm.
BACKGROUND
Parallax is the owner of U.S. Patent No. 9,289,085 (’085
patent) and U.S. Patent No. D543,764 (D764 patent),
which are directed to dual-color interlocking floor mats.
Mr. Bruce Thrush is the named inventor of both patents.
On January 17, 2006, Parallax’s counsel, Mr. Robert
Fish filed the application that issued as the D764 patent,
which is related to U.S. Patent Application No. 11/105,182
(’182 Application) through a shared parent application,
U.S. Application No. 29/203,027 (’027 Application).2 Con-
currently with the application, he filed a preliminary
1 Honorable Thomas S. Kleeh, Chief District Judge,
United States District Court for the Northern District of
West Virginia, sitting by designation.
2 The D764 patent is a division of the ’027 Applica-
tion, and the ’182 Application is a continuation-in-part of
the ’027 Application.
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PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL , LLC v. INCSTORES LLC 3
amendment stating, “[t]he applicant knows of no prior art
interlocking mats having multiple layers which are either
textured on both sides, or where the layers have different
colors.” J.A. 512. Several months after the D764 patent
application was filed, but before the patent issued,
Mr. Fish became aware of the D’Luzansky3 and Chang4 ref-
erences—prior art which taught dual-color mats—from Of-
fice Actions rejecting claims in the ’182 Application. See
Decision, 2023 WL 9417497, at *7. The D764 patent issued
on June 5, 2007. The ’085 patent issued on March 22, 2016
from an application that was a continuation of the ’182 Ap-
plication.
On May 20, 2016, Parallax filed a complaint against
Incstores alleging several of Incstores’s mat products in-
fringed Parallax’s ’085 and D764 patents. J.A. 124–25. In
response, Incstores filed requests for ex parte reexamina-
tion at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Of-
fice) against the D764 and ’085 patents.
In June 2017, the district court granted summary judg-
ment of invalidity for the D764 patent based on a 35 U.S.C.
§ 103 challenge in view of the EVAHWCG5 reference but
denied summary judgment of invalidity for the ’085 patent.
J.A. 1257. On March 21, 2018, the district court sua sponte
stayed the case pending the resolution of the ongoing ex
parte patent reexaminations. See J.A. 101.
In May 2021, a patent examiner issued a final rejection
of the D764 patent claims based on Wu6 in combination
with D’Luzansky which Incstores did not appeal. J.A.
11456–62. And in September 2021, this Court affirmed the
3 U.S. Patent No. 5,052,158.
4 U.S. Patent No. 6,588,167.
5 Screenshots of Karate and Tae Kwon Do mats. See
J.A. 574–75.
6 Chinese Patent No. CN3235199.
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PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL , LLC v. INCSTORES LLC 4
Patent Office’s rejection of all claims in the ’085 patent in
view of Koffler7 in combination with other references. In
re Parallax Grp. Int’l, LLC, 858 F. App’x 358 (Fed. Cir.
2021) (per curiam).
The district court entered judgment in favor of
Incstores on August 31, 2022. See Decision, 2023 WL
9417497, at *1. The court still conducted a bench trial on
September 26, 2023 for Incstores’s inequitable conduct
claim, because it was relevant to Incstores’s motion for an
exceptional case finding and attorney’s fees under
35 U.S.C. § 285.
After a thorough assessment of Incstores’s arguments,
the district court denied Incstores’s attorney’s fees motion.
For the inequitable conduct allegation, the court held
Incstores failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing ev-
idence that Parallax, in the course of prosecuting the ’085
and D764 patents, acted “with a specific intent to deceive
the [Patent Office].” Id. at *7–8 (quoting Exergen Corp. v.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 575 F.3d 1312, 1327 n.3 (Fed. Cir.
2009)). The district court also considered the “totality of
the remaining circumstances,” determining that
Incstores’s arguments did not warrant an exceptional case
finding. Id. at *10–11.
Incstores filed a motion to amend the attorney’s fees
decision, alleging errors under F ED. R. CIV . P. 52, 59, and
60, which the district court denied on April 5, 2024. Paral-
lax Grp. Int’l, LLC v. Incstores, LLC, No. SACV 16-00929
JVS (DFMX), 2024 WL 3078228, at *1 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 5,
2024) (Amendment Order).
Incstores timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under
28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).
7 International Patent PCT No. WO 02/068515.
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PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL , LLC v. INCSTORES LLC 5
D ISCUSSION
I. Inequitable Conduct
Incstores contends that Mr. Fish’s inaccurate state-
ments to the Patent Office require a finding that Mr. Fish
specifically intended to deceive the agency. Incstores also
requests this Court re-do the district court’s witness credi-
bility analysis in light of an alleged discrepancy in
Mr. Fish’s testimony. See Appellant Br. 47.
“We review the district court’s findings on the thresh-
old issues of materiality and intent for clear error.” Cargill,
Inc. v. Canbra Foods, Ltd., 476 F.3d 1359, 1364 (Fed. Cir.
2007) (citation omitted). Under this deferential standard,
we find Incstores’s arguments unavailing.
The district court found that Mr. Fish credibly testified
that (1) he was unaware of either D’Luzansky or Chang
when he filed the preliminary amendment, and (2) he did
not disclose the two references when he learned of them
because he did not consider them material to the novelty or
nonobviousness of the design. See Decision, 2023 WL
9417497, at *7. The district court noted that the standard
for design patents is based on the perspective of an “ordi-
nary observer,” and when designs are close, “small differ-
ences . . . [are] likely to be important to” that observer. Id.
at *7–8 (citing Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc., 543
F.3d 665, 676 (Fed. Cir. 2008)). The district court also
noted that the Patent Office relied upon a different refer-
ence, Wu, as the primary reference to cancel the D764 pa-
tent claim during reexamination, rather than either
D’Luzansky or Chang; that choice by the Patent Office rea-
sonably supported Mr. Fish’s personal view that those ref-
erences were not material, and in turn the district court’s
finding that Mr. Fish lacked a specific intent to deceive.
See J.A. 11456–62. We see no clear error in the district
court’s findings.
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PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL , LLC v. INCSTORES LLC 6
Incstores challenges Mr. Fish’s overall credibility by
highlighting certain allegedly inconsistent statements he
made relating to his role during the litigation’s pre-filing
investigation. However, “[t]he district court is best suited
to make credibility determinations,” Refac Int’l, Ltd. v. Lo-
tus Dev. Corp., 81 F.3d 1576, 1582 (Fed. Cir. 1996) (cita-
tions omitted), and it did so here. The district court noted
the discrepancy and reasonably determined, “[b]ased on
the totality of the circumstances,” that it did not err in its
credibility analysis. See Amendment Order, 2024 WL
3078228, at *10.
II. Exceptional Case
Incstores next argues the district court’s failure to
make an exceptional case finding was in error because Par-
allax “argue[d] contradictory positions depending on
whether validity or infringement [of the ’085 patent] [wa]s
at issue.” Appellant Br. 51. For example, Incstores argues
the ’085 specification “says that there was a delamination
problem in dual color mats that was solved with undula-
tions and matching [coefficients of thermal expansion]
CTEs” but the inventor, Mr. Thrush, “testified that he
wasn’t even aware of dual color mats in the prior art; didn’t
solve delamination; and matching CTEs was common
sense.” Id. at 50–51.
“We review a district court’s factual determinations un-
derlying an exceptional case finding for clear error.” Mon-
olithic Power Sys., Inc. v. O2 Micro Int’l Ltd., 726 F.3d
1359, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2013) (citation omitted). Again,
Incstores identifies no clear error.
Incstores cherry-picks statements from Mr. Thrush
and compares them to disclosures in the ’085 specification
written by his counsel. The district court carefully took
these statements into account. In addressing potential
gaps between ’085 patent disclosures and statements by
Mr. Thrush, the district court, among other things, noted
Mr. Thrush’s explanation. Decision, 2023 WL 9417497, at
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PARALLAX GROUP INTERNATIONAL , LLC v. INCSTORES LLC 7
*8 (“As a layman, [he] rel[ies] on [his] patent counsel to in-
terpret the description of [his] invention and expand upon
it in the patent application.”).
There is no clear error in the district court’s analysis.
Incstores’s dispute lies in differences between testimony
from a layman inventor and his counsel. These minor dif-
ferences do not amount to an exceptional case under this
Court’s precedent. See OneSubsea IP UK Ltd. v. FMC
Techs., Inc., 68 F.4th 1285, 1294 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (stating
that an exceptional patent case “stands out from others
with respect to the substantive strength of a party’s litigat-
ing position . . . or the unreasonable manner in which the
case was litigated.”).
CONCLUSION
We have considered Incstores’s remaining arguments
and find them unpersuasive. For the foregoing reasons, we
affirm.
AFFIRMED
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