SSPPU

Subscribe to SSPPU via RSS

The Federal Circuit’s recent Exmark v. Briggs-Stratton decision further confirms that there is no categorical rule about selecting a royalty base when litigating a reasonable royalty in order to apportion value to the patented invention, but that “apportionment can be addressed in a variety of ways … [s]o long as [the patent owner] adequately and reliably apportions between the improved and conventional features” of the accused product.  Thus, in this case, the Federal Circuit ruled that the patent owner properly could use the entire lawn mower as the royalty base and was not limited to the innovative baffle component of the lawn mower as a royalty base.  This case continues the clarification made in the Federal Circuit’s CSIRO decision involving standard essential patents that recognized that “adaptability [in determining patent damages] is necessary because different cases present different facts” and rejected as “untenable” the argument that every damages model must start with the smallest salable patent practicing unit (SSPPU) (see our Dec. 3, 2015 post).

A persistent dispute in the standard essential patent (SEP) community is whether a patent owner may license its SEPs based on the sales price of the end product or if the patent owner must license its SEPs based on the sales price of a component within that end product (e.g., the smallest salable patent practicing unit or SSPPU).  The Federal Circuit’s Ericsson v. D-Link decision explained that the SSPPU theory was based on an evidentiary principle to avoid confusing jury’s in U.S. patent damages litigation (see our December 5, 2014 post). Yet some continued to claim that the SSPPU principle was a substantive rule of law required in all circumstances, including outside of litigation in private negotiations for SEP licenses.  The Federal Circuit’s CSIRO decision later held it was “untenable” to argue that all damages methodologies must start with the SSPPU (see our December 3, 2015 post).  Yet the debate somehow continued.  The Federal Circuit’s Exmark decision here may finally settle and dispel arguments that the royalty base cannot be the end product, but must be the SSPPU.  But we will see …
Continue Reading Federal Circuit confirms flexibility in determining royalty base (Exmark v. Briggs & Stratton)

Today, a Northern District of California jury in a trial before Magistrate Judge Nathanael M. Cousins entered a Verdict finding that Apple infringed two patents alleged essential to ETSI and 3GPP cellular standards, that the patents were not invalid and awarding a reasonable royalty in the amount of $3.4 Million and $3.9 Million for each patent, respectively, as single lump sum payments for past and future infringement.  It is not clear from the public record how the jury reached this damages verdict or whether it favors more the patent owner Core Wireless or the adjudged infringer Apple.  We may follow-up this post if more insight is provided by post-trial briefings or the trial transcripts become public.

Below is a discussion of some of the pre-trial rulings and jury instructions that would have shaped the jury’s reasonable royalty determination here.  These rulings touch-on the issues of royalty stacking, the smallest salable patent practicing unit, the form of a reasonable royalty, relevant Georgia-Pacific factors and apportionment to the value of the patented technology.
Continue Reading Jury awards Core Wireless $7.3 Million lump sum for Apple’s infringement of two SEPs (Core Wireless v. Apple)