Remittitur Denied and JMOL of Willfulness Granted on $1.17 Billion Verdict

Following a $1.169 billion jury verdict, the court denied defendant’s motion for new trial or remittitur and granted plaintiff’s motion for a finding of willful infringement. "The evidence at trial clearly and convincingly shows that [defendant] had knowledge of the patents-in-suit at the time of infringement by [11 years ago] and that the very people who designed the Accused Technology knew of the patents. . . . Despite knowing about the patents-in-suit . . . [defendant] made little effort to determine whether it was infringing these patents. [Defendant's engineers] all state that they decided not to read the patent claims, even though email correspondence indicates that both were aware that [plaintiff's employee] had patented his algorithm. If believed, this behavior is a clear sign they disregarded a high likelihood of infringement. . . . [Defendant] is in its current predicament because it deliberately undertook a series of strategic risks. It took the risk of incorporating technology into its products that it knew might have been covered by [plaintiff's] Patents. . . . Its trial team took the risk of taking this case to trial, despite repeated efforts to mediate this case, and knowing full well the size of the possible award. . . . Now, [defendant] looks to the courts to relieve it from the damages award it faces from taking those risks. . . . [I]t is the undersigned’s impression as a Judge and former trial lawyer that [defendant's] bad facts and even worse litigation strategy were fatal to its cause. . . . [Plaintiff] presented three extremely qualified and competent experts, each of whom did an excellent job explaining their opinions and pointing the jury to the factual proof underlying their opinions. On the other hand, [defendant] focused on attacking [plaintiff's] witnesses instead of presenting a cohesive defense based on its witnesses.”

Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell Technology Group, Ltd., et. al., 2-09-cv-00290 (PAWD September 23, 2013, Order) (Fischer, J.)