Intellectual Property Law

Federal Circuit affirms district court's decision setting aside $1.5 billion infringement verdict

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

In a decision yesterday, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law based on lack of standing for one patent and non-infringement of a second patent.  A jury awarded $1,538,056,702 in damages for infringement, but, as a result of the JMOL, the district court set aside the damages award.

The Federal Circuit affirmed.  The court agreed with the district court that the jury lacked substantial evidence to find the claims of the first patent in suit encompassed work that was solely owned by the plaintiff based on a Joint Development Agreement.  Instead, the court held that, in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the patent-in-suit was jointly owned by the plaintiff and a third party not involved in the suit.  Thus, the plaintiff lacked standing to sue in the absence of the other joint owner.

The court likewise affirmed the district court's finding that there was insufficient evidence of direct infringement to support the jury's determination of inducing infringement of the second patent.  There was no evidence that the accused method had actually been practiced by the accused product, and the plaintiff's expert testimony was to speculative to support a conclusion that the accused product necessarily infringed.

More detail of Lucent Techs., Inc. v. Gateway, Inc. after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).