No Enhanced Damages for Willful Infringement Leading to HCV Cure

Following a jury verdict of willful infringement, the court denied plaintiff's motion for enhanced damages because plaintiff failed to establish the need for a punitive sanction or deterrence. "While the Court does not, of course, 'bless' the type of underhanded corporate piracy the jury implicitly found [defendant] committed, given that the result of that misconduct is a cure for a potentially-fatal disease afflicting millions of people around the world, and given that the jury's damages award is already the largest damages verdict ever returned in a patent trial (compensating [plaintiff] for what it lost), additional sanction is just not warranted. . . . The Court cannot confidently state that it should wish to deter the conduct the jury implicitly found [defendant] committed. . . . Here, without both parties' contributions, humanity may well have been deprived of a cure for HCV. Under the totality of circumstances, society's interest in deterrence of willful patent infringement does not justify enhancing damages here."

Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC et al v. Gilead Sciences, Inc., 1-14-cv-00846 (DED September 22, 2017, Order) (Stark, USDJ)