Tuesday, October 17, 2017

News on Enhanced Damages

1. The Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology and Samsung Electronics are sponsoring an event this coming Friday, October 20 titled "Patent Law in Global Perspective," which will include a session titled "The law of enhanced damages and how companies should respond to willfulness risk."  Speakers for this session will include Professors Colleen Chien, David McGowan, and Peter Menell, as well as Chris Lubeck (Tesla) and Isaac Peterson (Netflix). Information is available here.

2.  The aforementioned speakers should have a lot to talk about.  Just a couple of days ago Dr. Sanjeev Mahanta published a post on IP Watchdog titled "Idenix v. Gilead: District Court Exercises Discretion to Deny Enhanced Damages," discussing the September 22 decision of Judge  Stark (D. Delaware) denying Idenix a damages enhancement (and an award of attorneys' fees) on top of the $2.54 billion reasonable royalty award for the infringement of Idenix's patent on a method of treating hepatitis C (which I earlier reported on here.)  A redacted version of Judge Stark's opinion is available here.  Dr. Mahanta's post seems pretty thorough, though I may wish to write up some of my own thoughts on the opinion later this week or next week.  (My initial reaction, for what it's worth, is favorable.)  The court also awards prejudgment interest at the prime rate.

3.  Meanwhile, reports are coming in that Judge Schroeder (Eastern District of Texas) on September 29 entered a memorandum opinion and order awarding VirnetX $41.3 million in enhanced damages and another $96 million in costs, attorneys' fees, and interest, on top of a damages award $302 million, in a suit against Apple.  For coverage, see, e.g., this story on Ars Technica.  Apparently the opinion and order have now been unsealed, but as of this morning it isn't showing up on Lex Machina. 

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