As federal courts have raised the bar on what may be considered a “comparable” license for setting a reasonable royalty rate, the use of third-party (“market”) licenses seems to be an uphill battle. The Orlando district court permitted a damages expert’s opinion that used market licenses as a starting point for his royalty rate. Here’s the why and how. …LEARN MORE
This district court wrestles with a conflicting area of patent damages that we at VLF have previously identified: although the Fed. Circuit wants patent royalties to be based on the “smallest saleable unit,” it later rejected the use of MS Outlook (presumably the smallest saleable unit) as a royalty base.
In this case, Plaintiff’s damages expert, Larry Evans, calculated damages based on Intel processors – the smallest saleable unit – …LEARN MORE
A Nevada judge rejected a Daubert motion against a damages expert who based his royalty partly on a 50% profit split. Defendants called this a “rule of thumb” similar to the 25% Rule that the Federal Circuit rejected in Uniloc but the judge disagreed. …LEARN MORE
In a Daubert ruling, a Washington district court judged allows Motorola’s expert to testify that the reasonable royalty should apply to the complete product, despite failing to meet the entire market value rule. In this patent infringement case related to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, …LEARN MORE
Defendants filed a Daubert motion to exclude a lost profits claim where the expert assumed a 50% market share, based only on his client’s estimates. The district court denied the motion, thus allowing the testimony as long as the expert presents the 50% as assumption, not his opinion. …LEARN MORE