Willful Patent Infringement and Enhanced Damages After In re Seagate: An Empirical Study

55 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2011 Last revised: 3 Jan 2015

See all articles by Christopher B. Seaman

Christopher B. Seaman

Washington and Lee University School of Law

Date Written: February 7, 2012

Abstract

Willful patent infringement is a critical issue in patent litigation, as it can result in an award of up to treble (enhanced) damages. In a 2007 decision, In re Seagate, 497 F.3d 1360 (en banc), the Federal Circuit significantly altered the standard governing willful infringement by requiring the patentee to prove at least "objective recklessness" by the accused infringer. Many observers predicted that this heightened standard would result in far fewer willfulness findings and enhanced damage awards. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive empirical study of Seagate's actual impact in patent litigation.

This paper fills that gap by analyzing six years of decisions in the district courts - three years before and after Seagate - on willful patent infringement and enhanced damages. Surprisingly, it determines that willful infringement was found only about 10% fewer cases after Seagate. In addition, after Seagate, juries find willful infringement substantially more often than judges at trial. However, enhanced damages are awarded less frequently and in lower amounts when juries find willfulness compared to judges.

Finally, this Article evaluates the impact of several common factors on willful infringement decisions after Seagate. Based on the empirical data collected in this study, the existence of a "substantial" or "legitimate" defense to infringement is the strongest predictor of a finding of no willfulness after Seagate, while evidence of copying by the accused infringer was the strongest predictor of willfulness. In contrast, the remaining factors studied - opinions of counsel, attempts to design around the patent, reexamination at the PTO, and bifurcation of willfulness from liability at trial - had no statistically significant effect on willfulness decisions.

Keywords: willful, willfulness, patent, infringement, seagate, enhanced damages, read, opinion, opinion of counsel, copying, design around, reexamination, substantial defense, bifurcation, jury, judge, empirical

JEL Classification: K41, O31, O35

Suggested Citation

Seaman, Christopher B., Willful Patent Infringement and Enhanced Damages After In re Seagate: An Empirical Study (February 7, 2012). Iowa Law Review, Vol. 97, p. 417, 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1751831

Christopher B. Seaman (Contact Author)

Washington and Lee University School of Law ( email )

Lexington, VA 24450
United States
540-458-8520 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,098
Abstract Views
6,804
Rank
36,793
PlumX Metrics