Continued Willful Infringement Justifies 1.5X Multiplier for Ongoing Royalty Award​

The court granted in part plaintiff's motion for an ongoing royalty and enhanced the jury's royalty rate by one and half times for defendants' willful infringement. "[Plaintiff] argues the jury’s verdict did not include damages for Defendants’ willful infringement. Thus, [plaintiff] contends enhancement for Defendants’ continued willful infringement is proper in the ongoing royalty context when using the jury’s non-willfulness rate as a starting point. The Court agrees. . . . [I]t is undisputed that, since the jury verdict, Defendants have continued to infringe the patents-in-suit. . . . [T]he Court does not find that trebling the jury-determined rate to be appropriate. [Plaintiff] has not addressed any circumstances that would relate to the egregiousness of Defendants’ conduct after the jury’s verdict. Nevertheless, after balancing the [Read Corp. v. Portec, Inc., 970 F.2d 816, 827 (Fed. Cir. 1992)] factors, the Court considers Defendants’ continued infringement to be unreasonable, deliberate and willful in nature. As such, the Court enhances the jury-determined rate by 1.5 times."

Imperium IP Holdings (Cayman), Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al, 4-14-cv-00371 (TXED September 13, 2017, Order) (Mazzant, USDJ)