In Depuy Synthes Products, LLC v. Globus Medical, Inc., C.A. No. 11-652-LPS (D. Del. Mar. 25, 2014), Judge Leonard P. Stark decided several post-trial motions, denying the parties’ motions for attorneys’ fees, denying plaintiff’s motion for a permanent injunction and destruction of infringing products, granting in part plaintiff’s motion for an accounting and determination of an ongoing royalty rate, and granting plaintiff’s motion for prejudgment and postjudgemnt interest. Judge Stark’s decision followed a ten-day jury trial where the jury found plaintiff’s asserted patents valid and infringed. Id. at 1.
Denying plaintiff’s motion for attorneys’ fees, Judge Stark concluded that defendant’s conduct was not “exceptional” as to justify the award of fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285. Id. at 8. Judge Stark explained, for example, that many of defendant’s positions that plaintiff argued were “baseless” were the same positions that the Court addressed during the Pretrial Conference. Id. at 7. At the Pretrial Conference, however, the Court found defendant’s positions on “claim construction, noninfringement and invalidity positions . . . to be not unreasonable.” Id. at 6-7. Further, addressing plaintiff’s assertion that defendant made representations at trial “that contradicted the Court’s prior rulings or [defendant’s] earlier representations to the Court,” Judge Stark explained that “much of what [plaintiff] complains about was already dealt with at trial, the Court already provided adequate relief, and these events do not make this case ‘exceptional.’” Id. at 7-8. Judge Stark additionally noted that defendant “properly places its comments within the context of a legally and factually complex trial in which the Court was required to construe claim terms as late as during the trial’s final days.” Id. at 7-8. Turning to defendant’s motion for attorneys’ fees, Judge Stark addressed defendant’s assertion that plaintiff “maintained its willfulness allegation even after . . . it became clear that [the allegation] lacked any merit.” Id. at 8. Despite the fact that the Court had made statements during Pretrial Conference that defendant’s noninfringement positions were “not unreasonable,” and that defendant’s pre-suit and post-suit conduct was not “objectively unreasonable,” Judge Stark nevertheless found that plaintiff did not act in bad faith. Id. at 8-9. Judge Stark explained that “the Court’s determination that [plaintiff] could not prevail on its willful infringement claim does not logically lead to the conclusion that [defendant] . . . should receive attorneys’ fees.” Id. at 9.
Denying plaintiff’s motion for a permanent injunction and destruction of infringing products, Judge Stark explained that plaintiff failed to demonstrate that remedies at law were inadequate to compensate it for injuries. Id. at 10. While plaintiff maintained that its patented products operated as “door openers” to other products, the Court already addressed and denied such an argument on plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction following the trial. See id. at 9-10. Judge Stark denied the instant motion despite the fact that plaintiff made “persuasive arguments regarding some of the other permanent injunction factors, particularly regarding the balance of hardships between [plaintiff] and [defendant] and the public interest.” Id. at 10.
With respect to its motion for an accounting and determination of an ongoing royalty rate, plaintiff sought “additional damages to account for infringing sales that were not part of the royalty base that the parties presented to the jury,” and argued that for post-verdict sales, an ongoing royalty rate of 25% should apply. Id. at 11. While Judge Stark noted that there “is a fundamental difference . . . between a reasonable royalty for pre-verdict infringement and damages for post-verdict infringement ,” he found plaintiff’s 25% rate to be too high. See id. at 13-15. Judge Stark rather adopted a rate of 18% for post-verdict sales, which was based “on the Court’s conclusion that [plaintiff] is entitled to some elevated ongoing royalty rate as a result of the post-verdict changes [in] bargaining positions.” Id. at 14 & n.8. Judge Stark also found that defendant “shall be required to provide [plaintiff] with records sufficient to identify infringing sales within 15 days after the close of the calendar quarter in which those sales were made.” Id. at 15. Finally, based on the fact that plaintiff presented “some evidence that the prime rate is appropriate,” Judge found that prejudgment “interest should be calculated using the prime rate, compounded quarterly.” Id. at 17.
Depuy Synthes Products, LLC v. Globus Medical, Inc., C.A. No. 11-652-LPS (D. Del. Mar. 25, 2014)
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