Our recent post on copyright claims concerning AI-generated images reminded me of another interesting copyright opinion from last month. In it, Judge Connolly applied a patent law damages principle to a copyright infringement case involving a computer program.
In patent cases, defendants may use evidence of non-infringing alternatives to attempt to reduce the damages calculation if their product is shown to infringe a valid patent. For example, plaintiffs may argue that they are due lost profit damages under the Panduit factors:
- Demand for the patented product,
- Absence of acceptable non-infringing substitutes,
- The plaintiff possesses manufacturing and marketing capability to exploit the demand, and
- The amount of profit plaintiff would have made.
Therefore, a defendant can lower a plaintiff’s …
