Patent Law

The following is excerpted from an October 11, 2002 presentation by the Sonoda & Kobayashi law firm of Tokyo, Japan discussing the impact of amendments to patent law regarding infringement lawsuits that became effective in 1999 and 2000:

Simplification of the Method to Determine the Amount of Damage (Article 102.1)

Provisions for the determination of damage:

1. The infringer must compensate the patentee for the ?lost profit? of the patentee (Civil Law, Article 709)

2. The amount of damage may be determined by one of the four methods below:

• The damage may be calculated by multiplying the profit per unit product of the patentee with the number of products sold by the infringer (Patent Law, Article 102.1)
• The profit made by the infringer during the infringement is assumed to be the damage (Patent Law, Article 102.2)
• The expected royalty for the licensing of the patent is assumed to be the damage (Patent Law, Article 102.3)
• The court may determine the amount of damage by taking into consideration all evidence and arguments presented before the court

See full presentation here.