Summary:
Since 1790, companies and individuals have protected many of their most valuable ideas by obtaining U.S. utility patents. If a direct competitor or other company infringes a company’s or individual’s U.S. patent, the patent owner can sue the accused party or parties for patent infringement in U.S. Federal Court. Patent infringement lawsuits are often complex, contentious and expensive to litigate, and can result in significant damage awards to the patent owner.

If a patent owner can prove another company or party has made, used or sold a product covered by a patent without its permission, the patent owner is entitled, under 35 U.S.C. Section 284, to receive “damages adequate to compensate for the infringement, but in no event less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention by the infringer, together with interest and costs as fixed by the court.”

This program focuses on how expert analysis can help determine damages in patent infringement lawsuits.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand when lost profits may be applicable, when only reasonable royalty damages may be applicable, or when a combination of lost profits and a reasonable royalty (also known as “market share” damages) may be applicable
2. Understand the four Panduit Factors and how to address them in a lost profits analysis
3. Understand the fifteen Georgia-Pacific Factors and how to address them in a reasonable royalty analysis
4. Understand relevant patent damages case law

Program Agenda:
• The importance of understanding / defining the Patented Technology at issue
• Lost profits
• The Entire Market Value Rule
• Reasonable royalties
• The hypothetical negotiation