Remedies
Under US law, a patent owner is entitled to the larger of either a reasonable royalty or lost profits that result from infringement of their patent. Reasonableness is determined by the standard practices of the particular industry that the invention is in. Lost profits are determined by a "but for" analysis. (e.g. "My client would have made X dollars in profit but for the infringement of his/her patent.")
If an infringer is found to have deliberately infringed a patent (i.e. "willful" infringement), then punitive damages can be assessed up to three times the actual damages. Legal fees can also be assessed.
An infringer can also be enjoined from further infringement of the patent, even to the point of being forced to remove an infringing product from the market.
Until the 2006 Supreme Court case of eBay v. MercExchange, plaintiffs routinely sought, and were granted, injunctions prohibiting infringement of their patents. After 2006, injunctions were much harder to obtain, leaving plaintiffs to pursue remedies only for damages. Because patents last for many years, it is common for lawsuits to conclude before the patent term has ended. This has opened up the question of whether and to what extent a court should craft a remedy that includes a royalty for infringing activity that has not yet occurred, but which likely will occur in the immediate future if the infringer continues his infringing activity. According to a 2009 article in the Federal Lawyer, courts have been willing to grant such remedies in appropriate cases.
Read more about this topic: Patent Infringement Under United States Law
Famous quotes containing the word remedies:
“Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“The said doctor can easily practise upon a page, and, if he does well, he can use his remedies on my son.”
—Catherine De’ Medici (1519–1589)
“But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)