Patentees Can Still Win in the US

Provisur Systems, Inc. v. Weber, Inc., Docket No. 5:19-cv-06021 (W.D. Mo. Feb 22, 2019)

A jury has sided with Provisur and issued a $10 million verdict from its  food items-processing machinery competitor Weber Maschinenbau. This is about half what Provisur asked for.

The patents go over different numerous higher-velocity slicers, conveyors, and packaging machines.  I expended a summer season doing the job on the line of a bacon packing manufacturing unit and know how vital it is to have equipment that is speedy and secure, and works effectively even with variable inputs and improperly trained handlers.

Adhering to a 9-working day demo, an eight-member jury uncovered claims from 3 of the four asserted patents infringed.  The Decide in the situation is Stephen Bough, a 2014 Obama appointee.  In cases like these, Judge Bough generally seats a six-member jury with two alternates. (Underneath FRCP 48, the jury needs to have at the very least six jurors in purchase to render a verdict in civil instances). 

The jury also observed the infringement willful. The patentee will probably use that willfulness verdict to ask for punitive damages.   In put up-verdict motions, the defendant will very likely renew its motion for Judgment as a Make a difference of Regulation. A critical problem is lifted in the pre-verdict JMOL movement was no matter if the patentee is entitled to rely on an Whole Market place Value Rule to determine damages instead than an apportionment technique.  The patentee also indicated in its pre-demo quick that it prepared to also look for injunctive damages.  That equitable concern is made the decision by a judge somewhat than jury.

One fascinating element of the verdict is that the jury was authorized to to choose the circumstance on possibly literal infringement or less than the doctrine of equivalents (DOE).  The verdict type did not, nonetheless, involve the jury to distinguish between the two. Consequently, the verdict can be upheld on either floor. I have bundled the jury guidelines on DOE under.

The patentee was represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher on a workforce led by Craig Martin.  Sterne Kessler represented the defendants.  This seems to be a person of several ongoing patent battles between the two events in US court docket, the PTAB, and abroad.