December 2, 2022
A team from Willkie led by Indranil (“Indy”) Mukerji, Head of Tech Patent Litigation, was recognized by The AmLaw Litigation Daily for securing a significant victory on behalf of Body Fit Training, a subsidiary of Xponential Fitness, Inc., in a high-profile, high-stakes, competitor vs. competitor patent litigation brought by F45 Training, a publicly traded Australia-based fitness franchisor.
On November 17, Federal Circuit Judge William Bryson granted summary judgment to Body Fit finding that F45’s claims regarding methods of remotely configuring and directing a fitness studio operation from a central server were invalid. Bryson found the claims were directed at generic and abstract concepts and recited only well-understood, routine, and conventional activities well-known in the fitness and computing industries, which didn’t make them patent-eligible.
The lawsuit marks the latest chapter in F45’s worldwide legal campaign against Body Fit, in which F45 filed and lost a similar patent infringement case in Australia, and filed various unsuccessful trademark-related cases in several countries. Significantly, Body Fit and Xponential have now managed to invalidate several of F45’s key patents on a global scale.
The Willkie team included partners Indy Mukerji, Stephen Marshall and Eugene Chang, and associates Devon Edwards, Gabrielle Antonello, Derek Biehn and Chris Hong.
Read more about the case and decision here.
Read The AmLaw Litigation Daily“ Litigator of the Week” article here (subscription may be required).
