Plaintiff Denied Damages For Infringement Prior to Certificate of Correction

The court ruled that plaintiff may not seek damages for alleged infringement prior to the date the PTO issued a Certificate of Correction for the asserted patent. "After a [Certificate of Correction] is issued by the PTO, all future patent infringements go to the corrected patent claim and not to the original claim. [Plaintiff] cannot claim damages for infringement on the . . . uncorrected claims of the [asserted patent] because the PTO corrections do not apply retroactively and [plaintiff] only asserted infringement of the corrected claims. [Plaintiff] has never articulated an infringement theory based on the pre-corrected claims and it is undisputed that the corrections were made after the filing of the suit on August 29, 2006. In addition, [plaintiff's] expert has only discussed infringement based on the corrected . . . patent claims. Accordingly, [plaintiff's] claim for damages on the [patent-in-suit] is limited to the date of correction by the PTO."

Cordance Corporation v. Amazon.com Inc., 1-06-cv-00491
(DED July 28, 2009, Memorandum Order) (Thynge, J.)