Denver Team Secures Enhanced Damages Award in Patent Infringement Case

Denver, Colo. (March 21, 2019) - Denver Partners Ian R. Walsworth and Craig W. Mueller recently secured an enhanced damages award on behalf of their client. The order, issued by the Western District of Tennessee on March 14, 2019, awarded over $2 million in enhanced damages against the defendant, a competing manufacturer, bringing the total judgment to over $4.6 million. This additional damages award followed a finding of willful infringement of three patents owned by our client.

The court evaluated seven factors articulated by Read Corp. v. Portec, Inc., 970 F.2d 816 (Fed. Cir. 1992) to find that a multiplier of 2.5, as applied to the compensatory damages, was an appropriate enhancement in this case. More specifically, the court found that multiple factors weighed strongly in favor of enhancement, including the defendants’ “superficial” remediation attempts after the complaint was filed. The court also highlighted that “the jury verdict was not a close call and the evidence strongly supported” our client’s case.

This order followed a remand from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued an opinion on February 5, 2018, affirming the lower court’s judgment on all issues related to liability. Notwithstanding the affirmance, the Federal Circuit ordered the lower court to reevaluate the amount of enhancement of damages in view of all the circumstances. Briefing on the enhanced damages was supplemented and received by the lower court in mid-2018.

Mr. Walsworth represented our client in the original trial and appeal, as well as on remand. Mr. Mueller prosecuted all three of our client’s patents the jury found to be valid and willfully infringed, which the Federal Circuit upheld.