Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Terry Clark commented on the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Halo Electronics v. Pulse Electronics Inc., in which the court rejected the Federal Circuit’s test for awarding enhanced damages in patent cases, finding that the parameters for patent owners is not justified under the Patent Act. Terry provided the following insights in the article:
For the first time in a while, this decision arguably enhances the value of U.S. patents by removing the rigid test to prove and sustain enhanced damages for egregious infringing conduct. The artificial constraints on a district court’s discretion from Seagate are gone. All of this now makes enhanced damages a more powerful weapon for all patent owners, including non-practicing entities. The practical issue is predicting where the line will ultimately fall between typical infringement and egregious cases, as well as what an accused infringer should do — or must do — to be on the safe side of that line.
The full article, “Attorneys React To High Court’s Patent Damages Ruling,” was published by Law360 on June 13, 2016, and is available online.