Non-Practicing Plaintiff is Entitled to Damages for Post-Filing Willful Infringement Even Though it Failed to Seek a Preliminary Injunction

The rule that damages for post-filing willful infringement are unavailable if the plaintiff fails to move for a preliminary injunction, (see In re Seagate Tech., LLC, 497 F.3d 1360, 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2007)), "is neither an absolute nor a general rule applicable to all patent cases." The rule did not apply in this case because the plaintiff "[did] not practice the invention and [did] not compete with the infringer," and therefore plaintiff "reasonably and wisely" concluded that he would lose a motion for preliminary injunction for reasons "other than its lack of merit on the underlying claim."

Krippelz v. Ford Mtr. Co., 1-98-cv-02361 (ILND March 25, 2009, Minute Order)