United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 22-2529 THOMAS A. RUSSELL, M.D., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ZIMMER, INC., Defendant-Appellee. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division. No. 2:20-cv-00200-TLS-JEM — Theresa L. Springmann, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED FEBRUARY 23, 2023 — DECIDED SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 ____________________

Before SYKES, Chief Judge, AND ROVNER, and LEE, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. All inventors hope that their inven- tions will improve the world and be financially successful. Thomas Russell certainly had this wish for his inventions, but when the financial rewards only came trickling in, Russell and others sued the exclusive distributor of his inventions for breach of the clauses in the contract that required the distrib- utor to use commercially reasonable efforts to sell the