The World in U.S. Courts: Winter 2018 - Intellectual Property – Patents
December.08.2017
This patent infringement litigation began twelve years ago, and returns to District Court for the reconsideration of a number of issues in light of changes to the law made by recent decisions of the US Supreme Court. Among other issues, the Court addressed the extent to which extraterritorial conduct that could not form the basis for a finding of patent infringement might nevertheless be considered for purposes of determining whether US infringement was “willful,” and therefore supported the imposition of enhanced damages. The Court believed that extraterritorial conduct could be so used, but it did not articulate a general standard against which to judge future cases. Rather it concluded simply: “Fairchild’s extraterritorial conduct is relevant to willfulness because it enabled Fairchild to manufacture a product that subjected it to liability under U.S. patent law.”