SUE L. ROBINSON, District Judge.
At Wilmington this 19th day of February, 2016, having reviewed defendant Sprint Communications Co., L.P.'s ("Sprint") 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction (D.I. 8;
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3. Under a factual attack, however, the court is not "confine[d] to allegations in the . . . complaint, but [can] consider affidavits, depositions, and testimony to resolve factual issues bearing on jurisdiction." Gotha v. United States, 115 F.3d 176, 179 (3d Cir. 1997); see also Mortensen v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 549 F.2d 884, 891-92 (3d Cir. 1977). In such a situation, "no presumptive truthfulness attaches to plaintiff's allegations, and the existence of disputed material facts will not preclude the trial court from evaluating for itself the merits of jurisdictional claims." Carpet Group, 227 F.3d at 69 (quoting Mortensen, 549 F.2d at 891). Although the court should determine subject matter jurisdiction at the outset of a case, "the truth of jurisdictional allegations need not always be determined with finality at the threshold of litigation." Moore, supra, § 12.30[1]. Rather, a party may first establish jurisdiction "by means of a nonfrivolous assertion of jurisdictional elements and any litigation of a contested subject-matter jurisdictional fact issue occurs in comparatively summary procedure before a judge alone (as distinct from litigation of the same fact issue as an element of the cause of action, if the claim survives the jurisdictional objection)." Jerome B. Grubart, Inc. v. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., 513 U.S. 527, 537-38 (1995) (citations omitted).
4. The Declaratory Judgment Act requires an actual controversy between the parties before a federal court may exercise jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 2201(a). A plaintiff bringing an action for declaratory judgment must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that an actual controversy exists. See Shell Oil Co. v. Amoco Corp., 970 F.2d 885, 887 (Fed. Cir. 1992). An actual controversy exists where "the facts alleged, under all the circumstances, show that there is a substantial controversy, between parties having adverse legal interests, of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment."
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6. There is no dispute that Sprint has asserted infringement against various Cisco customers based on their use of Cisco products. (D.I. 1 at ¶¶ 14, 18, 23, 30, 37, 44, 51, 58; Civ. No. 15-432, D.I. 1 at ¶¶ 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63) The Federal Circuit has held, however, that suppliers have no right to bring a declaratory judgment action solely because their customers have been sued for direct infringement. Microsoft Corp. v. Data Tern, Inc., 755 F.3d 899, 904 (Fed. Cir. 2014). Unlike the facts reviewed in Arris and Microsoft, Cisco has not cited to any "allegations by the patentee or other record evidence that establish at least a reasonable potential that such a claim could be brought." Microsoft, 755 F.3d at 905. In Microsoft, for example, the patentee's claim charts cited the suppliers' product literature (indicative of inducement). Id. at 906. In Arris,
7. Cisco argues that its customers' demands for indemnification satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of the Declaratory Judgment Act. I agree that, if Cisco "had an
8. The final two facts cited by Cisco in support of jurisdiction include Sprint's aggressive litigation strategies and Sprint's refusal to give assurances that it will not enforce its patents against Cisco. Although the Federal Circuit has recognized that "a patentee's refusal to give assurances that it will not enforce its patent is relevant to the determination [of declaratory judgment standing]," Prasco, LLC v. Medicis Pharm. Corp., 537 F.3d 1329, 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (citation omitted), the Court in Microsoft subsequently explained that such "post-complaint facts" "cannot create jurisdiction where none existed at the time of filing." Microsoft, 755 F.3d at 906. With respect to Sprint's aggressive licensing and litigation strategies — even in the face of this court's invalidating various of Sprint's patents — the prospect of continued litigation against Cisco customers, without more, is insufficient to pass muster under the current legal regime.
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