The court granted plaintiffs' motion in limine to preclude defendant's argument that lost profits should be apportioned to account for defendant's contribution to development of the claimed invention. "Defendants contend that the work their scientists did on identifying the alphaamylase variant at position 239 added value to the [patent-in-suit] and should be taken into consideration by the jury in determining plaintiffs’ lost profits. In other words, the damages should be apportioned to reflect the added value they provided. . . . This is not a case in which an extra feature adds value to a larger component; the [patent-in-suit] incorporates the entire invention, which is the GC358 starch hydrolyzing alpha-amylase variant. . . . [A] patent holder is entitled to all of the infringer’s profits unless his patent created only a part of those profits. Those are not the facts in this case, in which the [patent-in-suit] claims the entirety of the invention. The entire value of defendants’ infringing sales of [the accused product] derives from this invention; therefore plaintiffs are entitled to the full amount of whatever lost profits they are able to prove."
Novozymes A/S, et. al. v. Danisco A/S, et. al., 3-10-cv-00251 (WIWD October 25, 2011, Order) (Crabb, J.)
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