Costco Wholesale Corp. (“Costco”) appeals from the district court’s order denying its motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings involving claims of patent and trade dress infringement brought against it by Industrial Wire Products, Inc. (“IWP”). For the reasons set forth below, we reverse.
I.
In 2006 and 2007, IWP and Costco entered into vendor agreements in which IWP agreed to supply Costco with IWP’s patented “Configurable Bins,” which are interlocking plastic storage containers. The 2007 vendor agreement 1 contains the following arbitration clause:
[¶]27.1 All claims and disputes that (1) are between Vendor [IWP] and Costco Wholesale ... and (2) arise out of orrelate to the Agreement Documents or any agreement or transaction or occurrence between Vendor [IWP] and Costco Wholesale or to their performance or breach (including any tort or statutory claim) ... shall be arbitrated under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), in English in Seattle, Washington. ...
[¶]27.2 Vendor [IWP] acknowledges and agrees that ... this agreement to arbitrate covers, without limitation, any claims with respect to matters relating to the distribution rights of any of the parties arising under this Import Agreement or any applicable law.
(J.A. 68-69.)
After entering into these vendor agreements with IWP, Costco began selling a product called an “Interlocking Shoe Organizer” that it obtained from a different vendor. The Interlocking Shoe Organizer is a storage device that is assembled by joining a series of panels with interlocking connectors to produce bins of various shapes and configurations. In January 2008, IWP filed the present action against Costco contending that Costco’s sale of the Interlocking Shoe Organizer infringed IWP’s patent and trade dress rights and violated Missouri unfair competition laws. Costco moved to compel arbitration.
The district court denied Costco’s motion to compel arbitration. The court analyzed paragraph 27.1 of the 2007 vendor agreement and held that IWP’s claims were not arbitrable because they did not arise from the vendor agreement or any agreement, transaction, or occurrence between the parties:
The claims are that Costco infringed on plaintiffs patent by selling the Interlocking Shoe Organizer. These infringement claims exist separate from any agreement, transaction, or occurrence between the parties. Although it happens that at some point in the past plaintiff sold products using its patented design to Costco, and signed a vendor agreement with an arbitration clause related to this sale, this fact is irrelevant to the present suit. Plaintiffs claims would exist regardless of whether the plaintiff had ever entered into any vendor agreement with Costco.
Indus. Wire Prods., Inc. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 4:08-cv-00070, slip op. at 5 (E.D. Mo. June 9, 2008). However, the court did not analyze whether IWP’s claims were arbitrable under paragraph 27.2. Costco brings this appeal.
II.
Both IWP and Costco agree that we have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal. Still, we must examine our appellate jurisdiction
sua sponte,
even if the parties concede the issue.
Dieser v. Cont’l Cas. Co.,
The district court has original jurisdiction in this case because it is a “civil action arising under [an] Act of Congress relating to patents[.]” 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a). The Federal Circuit would have exclusive jurisdiction over an appeal from a final decision in this case. See 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1) (giving Federal Circuit exclusive jurisdiction “of an appeal from a final decision of a district court ... if the jurisdiction of that court was based ... on section 1338”). However, the district court’s denial of Costco’s motion to compel arbitration was not a “final decision.”
See Microchip Tech.,
The Federal Circuit would also have exclusive appellate jurisdiction over “an appeal from an interlocutory order or decree described in subsection [1292](a) or [1292](b) of this section.”
2
28 U.S.C. § 1292(c). Section 1292(a) describes,
inter alia,
orders granting and refusing injunctions.
See id.
§ 1292(a)(1). The Federal Circuit has determined that “order[s] compelling arbitration [are] in effect [ ] mandatory injunction[s].”
Microchip Tech.,
The Third Circuit disagrees, finding that an order denying a motion to stay proceedings pending arbitration is “not ... an order denying an interlocutory injunction under section 1292(a)(1).”
Medtronic AVE,
In sum, the key difference between the Third and Federal Circuits’ analyses concerns whether the denial of a motion to compel arbitration is equivalent to the denial of an injunction. Under the Federal
Because the district court’s decision denying Costco’s motion to compel arbitration was neither “final” nor “injunctive,” the Federal Circuit does not have exclusive jurisdiction over this appeal.
4
Instead, as the Third Circuit decided in
Medtronic AVE,
this court has jurisdiction pursuant to 9 U.S.C. § 16(a)(1), which renders the denial of a motion to compel arbitration appealable, and 28 U.S.C. § 1294(1), “which provides, with exceptions that [ ] are inapplicable, that an appeal from a reviewable decision of a district court ‘shall be taken to the ... court of appeals for the circuit embracing the district.’ ”
Medtronic AVE,
III.
“[T]he FAA limits a district court’s initial role in any challenge to an arbitration agreement to deciding whether ‘the making of the agreement for arbitration or the failure to comply therewith’ is at issue.”
MedCam, Inc. v. MCNC,
Paragraph 27.2 states that “[IWP] acknowledges and agrees that ... this agreement to arbitrate covers, without limitation, any claims with respect to matters relating to the distribution rights of any of the parties arising under this Import Agreement or any applicable law.” (Id. at 68-69.) Costco contends this provision mandates arbitration of IWP’s intellectual property claims:
[Paragraph 27.2 ... covers the right to distribute products based on provisions within the Agreement or any applicable law such as patent law as asserted in the complaint. IWP’s complaint asserts that Costco has no right to distribute a product that is a “colorable imitation” of the product Costco previously distributed for IWP, and those claims fit squarely within this provision and must be arbitrated.
(Appellant’s Reply Br. 11 (emphasis in original); accord Appellant’s Br. 16.) Although IWP quotes paragraph 27.2 in its Statement of Facts (Appellee’s Br. 4), IWP never responds to Costco’s argument, nor does it provide any reason why we should ignore paragraph 27.2.
Given the broad language of paragraph 27.2, we simply cannot say “with positive assurance that the arbitration clause is not susceptible of an interpretation that covers the asserted dispute.”
MedCam,
. IV.
Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the district court with instructions to enter an order compelling arbitration.
Notes
. Like the district court, we limit our analysis to the 2007 agreement because "the 2007 Import Vendor Agreement states that it super-cedes all prior written communications between the parties for the matters covered in the Import Vendor Agreement.” Indus. Wire Prods., Inc. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 4:08-cv-00070, slip op. at 3 n. 1 (E.D. Mo. June 9, 2008).
. Section 1292(b), which vests district courts with discretion in extraordinary circumstances to certify for interlocutory appeal orders that are not otherwise appealable, is inapplicable to the present case.
. As we already noted, the Federal Circuit cannot have jurisdiction under section 1295 because the district court’s order was not a “final decision.” Section 1292(d), which deals with appealability of orders from the Courts of International Trade and Federal Claims, is also inapplicable. Thus, if the Federal Circuit does not have jurisdiction under section 1292(c), then section 1294(1) vests this circuit with jurisdiction over the present appeal.
. This outcome makes sense from a practical standpoint. We typically resolve questions of arbitrability by interpreting contract language and provisions of the FAA, not by analyzing the merits of underlying suits, whether they involve patent infringement or not.
Cf. Qualcomm Inc. v. Nokia Corp.,