Foreign Sales May be Included in Damages Calculations for Infringement of Method Claims Used in Domestic Sales Cycle

The court denied defendants' emergency motion to strike plaintiff's attempt to include sales of accused chips outside of the U.S. in its damages calculations. "Admittedly, there is no case exactly on point. On the other hand, [plaintiff] has put forth sufficient facts to support its theory, albeit novel. [Plaintiff] intends to prove that the alleged infringing method is used during [defendant's] sales cycle, which is performed here in the United States, where both its engineers and customers are located. [Plaintiff] seeks damages for this sales cycle infringement by claiming a reasonable royalty rate on all of the chips that are produced during this sales cycle and purchased based on the result of said cycle. In this Court’s view, one of the simplest ways to determine the value of an infringing use of a patented method during research is to ascertain how many sales were made based on that infringing use."

Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell Technology Group, Ltd., et. al., 2-09-cv-00290 (PAWD November 29, 2012, Order) (Fischer, J.).