Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Datatreasury Awarded Enhanced Damages of $26 Million but Denied Attorneys' Fees

The court granted plaintiff's motion for enhanced damages following the jury's finding of willful infringement and increased damages by $26 million, a 100% increase, based on the following Read Corp. v. Portec, Inc., 970 F.2d 816 (Fed. Cir. 1992), factors: (1) "some circumstantial evidence of copying"; (2) one defendant "has about $54 billion to its name" and owns the other defendant; and (3) "Defendants infringed to achieve some undetermined cost savings." However, the court denied plaintiff's motion to declare the case exceptional warranting an award of attorneys' fees. "Defendants have put forth some evidence of good faith beliefs of invalidity and noninfringement. Moreover, this case has been hard-fought, and the joint infringement theory on which Plaintiff succeeded in the Phase I trial only emerged after years of litigation."

Datatreasury Corp. v. Wells Fargo & Co. et al., 2-06-cv-00072 (TXED September 27, 2010, Order) (Folsom, J.)

No comments: