Patent Law Practice Center

Patent Law Institute Live Blog: Patent Damages – Keeping Up With the Changing Rules

We are back from the lunch break with our first panel of the afternoon from the Patent Law Institute. This afternoon’s panel is entitled, “Patent Damages – Keeping Up With the Changing Rules”. Our featured panelists are John Moehringer and Dawn Hall. The panel provides perspectives on the sea change in damages analysis, with focus on constructing/deconstructing a reasonable royalty case, proving lost profits and price erosion, and getting the most from your damages/economic expert. Here are the highlights: (more…)

Chief Judge Rader to Speak at Patent Law Institute on All-Star Panel!

Patent law heavyweights will convene for what looks to be two very special days in New York City at PLI’s 6^th Annual Patent Law Institute on February 16-17^th.

 Chief Judge Randall Rader of the Federal Circuit will participate in an all-star dialogue panel between the bench and bar along with United States District Judge William Young and nationally-recognized expert practitioners Donald Dunner, Seth Waxman and Dean John Whealan of the George Washington University Law School.

Robert Stoll, who recently retired as Commissioner for Patents at the USPTO, is slated to open the program with a PTO keynote address. Commissioner Stoll is expected to report the latest developments regarding the PTO’s on-going implementation of the America Invents Act and other critical PTO developments.

Co-Chairs Scott M. Alter (Faegre Baker Daniels LLP), Douglas R. Nemec (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP) and John M. White (Berenato & White; Director of Patent Professional Development, Practising Law Institute) will navigate attendees through 6 exciting plenary sessions that discuss the practice impacts of recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit decisions, AIA changes, current critical patent issues from the corporate counsel perspective, views from the District Court bench, the never-ending PTO changes and for good measure, an hour of legal ethics credit! (more…)

PLI Talks: Gerard Haddad on Patent Litigation

The Practising Law Institute’s Laurie Gilbertson interviewed Gerard Haddad, a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice at Dickstein Shapiro LLP, regarding the latest in patent litigation. Gerard shares how the Federal Circuit’s new rule of thumb for patent damages requires a connection between the damages and the actual patent. He also discusses with Laurie how the pharmaceutical industry has a likelihood of bringing claims that may challenge the application of the new rule for patent damages. For more, check out Gerard’s power point presentation entitled, “Rule of Thumb is Extinguished”.

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Judge: Nash Bargaining Is No Solution for Patent Damages

Brandon Baum of Baum Legal and Practice Center Contributor, sent in this article discussing the “Nash 50 Percent Rule” and patentees recent attempt to use the rule to support it’s damages claim in it’s patent infringement case.  Is the Nash Bargaining Solution stronger and more defensible than the “25 Percent Rule”?

In Uniloc v. Microsoft, the Federal Circuit rejected the so-called “25 Percent Rule of Thumb” that suggested that in a hypothetical negotiation over reasonable royalties, a good starting point is to assume a profit split of 25% to the patentee and 75% to the infringer.  Although the Federal Circuit did not say it, it has been assumed by many that the problem with the 25 Percent Rule was that it gave too much to the patentee — resulting in excessive damage awards.  Indeed, it was Microsoft complaining about the use of the “Rule” on appeal, not Uniloc.

Patentees, however, are a clever and resilient bunch who always view the glass as half full.  Since the Federal Circuit found that the 25 Percent Rule was not sufficiently grounded in science, patentees sought a replacement that was stronger and more defensible — and many have turned to the Nash Bargaining Solution. The Nash Bargaining Solution is a mathematical proof of what any parent of two children knows; in a two person bargaining scenario, the optimal split that the parties will eventually agree upon is 50-50.  For this, Nash won a Nobel Prize.  ”Eureka!,” said patentees.  ”We will replace the unproven and now-rejected 25 Percent Rule with Nash’s Nobel Prize-winning 50 Percent Rule!” (more…)

Foley & Lardner: Senate Introduces Patent Reform Act of 2011

On Tuesday, the Senate introduced the Patent Reform Act of 2011.  While the latest version is similar to previous patent reform bills, there are some significant changes made in the 2011 proposed legislation.  Our friends at Foley & Lardner sent in this alert discussing the new bill and how the House plans to address patent reform in 2011.

On January 25, 2011, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the latest bill on patent reform legislation—the Patent Reform Act of 2011.  According to Sen. Leahy, the new legislation is based on prior legislation introduced during the 109^thCongress, as well as compromises reached in March 2010 (the Managers’ Amendment to S. 515). A January 20, 2011 press release on Sen. Leahy’s Web site states, “[p]romoting economic growth continues to be a top priority for both Democrats and Republicans, and patent reform is part of that effort.” When introducing the bill, Sen. Leahy explained that the new legislation is intended to accomplish three primary goals: (1) transition to a first-to-file system; (2) improve patent quality; and (3) provide more certainty in litigation. The Act also includes provisions to limit standing and damages in false patent marking actions. However, Sen. Leahy did not directly address how he intends to resolve key differences with the House that carry over from last year’s stalled bill (S. 515), which contains many of the same provisions as the new bill. Meanwhile, the House has announced a new hearing that it will conduct on the link between patent reform and job creation, suggesting that it intends to obtain more input before considering legislative changes. Several of the key provisions of the recently introduced Senate bill are discussed in more detail below. (more…)