Expert's Reasonable Royalty Analysis Based on Comparable Licenses Not Unreliable for Failing to Apportion

​ The court denied plaintiff's motion to exclude as unreliable the testimony of one of defendant's damages experts regarding his opinion that $6.16 billion was a reasonable royalty as to six patents-in-suit on the ground he failed to apportion between patented and unpatented technologies. "[Defendant] argues that the Federal Circuit has approved the methodology of calculating a reasonable royalty rate based on comparable licensing negotiations without performing a separate apportionment analysis on the smallest saleable unit. In comparing the licenses here, [the expert] showed that . . . the licensed patents had 'extraordinarily similar technology' to the technology of the patents being asserted here. [The expert] also identified indicia of economic comparability between the comparable license agreements and the hypothetical licenses involved here, as well as any effect of alleged differences between them. . . . [His] method is consistent with the Federal Circuit's approved methodology for valuing asserted patents based on comparable licenses. . . . Whether the prior license agreements [he] relied on are sufficiently comparable to support his proposed reasonable royalty is a factual issue best addressed by examination, including cross-examination, at trial."

Intel Corporation v. Future Link Systems LLC, 1-14-cv-00377 (DED June 8, 2017, Order) (Stark, USDJ)