CAFC Affirms Exclusion of Damages Testimony, Reduction of $10 Million Jury Award to $1

"The decision, authored by Circuit Judge Stoll and joined by Circuit Judges Dyk and Prost, held that the United States District Court for the District of Delaware properly considered the requirements for expert testimony based on comparable license agreements to establish reasonable royalty damages. The CAFC also affirmed the district court's denial of Intuitive's request for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of non-infringement and agreed with the district court's finding that claim 6 of the '650 patent is not invalid for lack of written description."

"Rex Medical, L.P. filed a lawsuit against Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and related entities for infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,439,650 and 10,136,892, both generally directed to surgical stapling systems. The '892 patent was later withdrawn from the case and an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding on that patent was terminated by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board upon joint request of the parties."

The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's exclusion of Rex Medical's damages expert and reduction of a $10 million jury award to $1 for failure to prove damages. Rex sued Intuitive for infringement of U.S. Patents 9,439,650 and 10,136,892 related to surgical stapling systems; the '892 patent was withdrawn and its IPR was terminated by joint request. The district court excluded key portions of expert Douglas Kidder's testimony as untethered to the facts and applied Daubert gatekeeping standards. The jury had awarded $10 million based on Rex's president's testimony; the court entered JMOL reducing damages to nominal and denied a new damages trial.

Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law