A Blog About Intellectual Property Litigation and the District of Delaware


Entries for tag: Jury

Judge Noreika Rejects Waiver Argument in Case Where Both Parties Agree the Jury Made a Mistake

Andrew E. Russell, Oct. 3, 2022
Jury Objections Jury

Lawyer Objecting
AI-Generated, displayed with permission

At the jury trial in ArcherDX, LLC v. Qiagen Sciences, LLC, C.A. No. 19-1019-MN (D. Del.), the plaintiffs argued for $752,006 in U.S. royalties, and the jury awarded $1,593,762.

The higher number happened to exactly match the $752,006 they asked for for U.S. royalties, plus the lost profits number:

The $1,593,762 U.S. royalty award, however, is much higher than the estimate provided by Plaintiffs’ expert, and, in fact is equivalent to the expert’s suggested award for lost profits ($841,756) plus U.S. royalties ($752,006).

The parties both agreed that it was a mistake, and that the jury had intended to award the $752,006 that plaintiffs had asked for.

Plaintiffs, however, refused to give …

View

Phased Trial Results in Verdict for Plaintiff on All Counts; Some Comments by Chief Judge Connolly on Phased Trials and Jury Instructions

Andrew E. Russell, Aug. 8, 2022
Jury Selection Jury Trials

Phases
Phases Mason Kimbarovsky, Unsplash

We've previously talked about how Chief Judge Connolly's new form orders split patent trials into phases, with willful infringement and damages tried only if there is a finding of infringement. We noted at the time that the new form order doesn't say in which phase invalidity goes—with infringement, or afterwards?

It looked like we got an answer late last month, when Chief Judge Connolly held a phased jury trial in Magnolia Medical Technologies, Inc. v. Kurin, Inc., C.A. No. 19-97-CFC-CJB (D. Del.). There, the Court split the trial into two phases, with infringement by itself and then invalidity and damages together.

In Magnolia, the jury found infringement, so …

View

Chief Judge Stark Explains His Thoughts on Indefiniteness Issues Going to the Jury

Andrew E. Russell, Aug. 17, 2020
Indefiniteness Jury

In his lengthy ruling on the post-trial motions in Pacific Biosciences, Chief Judge Stark also set forth his views on whether indefiniteness may be tried to a jury, an issue that seems to come up repeatedly:

[Defendant] insists that the Supreme Court's decision in Teva vs. Sandoz[, 574 U.S. 318 (2015),] made indefiniteness an issue exclusively for the court to decide. I disagree. I continue to believe that I have discretion to put . . . indefiniteness before the jury where[,] as here, there are subsidiary fact disputes that inform the indefiniteness decision as a matter of law. [Defendant] has cited no contrary Federal Circuit case.
In fact, instead, the Federal Circuit [has] made clear that indefiniteness is …
View

Federal Circuit Rejects Argument that Court, Not Jury, Must Determine Whether Patent is Standards Essential

Andrew E. Russell, Aug. 4, 2020
Standards Essential Jury

In an appeal from a Judge Battalion case in the District of Delaware, the Federal Circuit today held that—unsurprisingly—a jury may answer the fact question of whether a patent is standards essential.

It held that the argument to the contrary, that the Court must determine whether a patent is standards-essential during claim construction, was based on a misreading of precedent.

View

Archive