Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc.

847 F. Supp. 2d 1178, 2012 WL 44485, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2500
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 9, 2012
DocketNo. C 10-03561 WHA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 847 F. Supp. 2d 1178 (Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., 847 F. Supp. 2d 1178, 2012 WL 44485, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2500 (N.D. Cal. 2012).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART GOOGLE’S MOTION IN LIMINE NUMBER THREE TO EXCLUDE PORTIONS OF DR. COCKBURN’S REVISED DAMAGES REPORT

WILLIAM ALSUP, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

In this patent and copyright infringement action involving Java and Android, defendant challenges plaintiffs revised expert damages report. For the following reasons, the motion is Granted in Part and Denied in Part.

STATEMENT

The background was set forth in previous orders (see Dkt. Nos. 137, 230, 433). A July 22 order rejected Dr. Cockburn’s first damages report for failing to apportion the value of the asserted claims and instead using the total value of Java and Android in calculating damages, among other reasons (Dkt. No. 230).

In his substitute damages report, Dr. Cockburn calculated damages in total, through the end of 2012, to be approximately two and a half billion dollars. This was broken down as follows. He estimated damages from 2007 through 2011, to be $201.8 million for patent infringement, $823.9 million in unjust enrichment for copyright infringement (not deducting for expenses or apportionment), and $136.2 million in lost profits or $102.6 million in lost licensing fees for copyright infringement (Cockburn Report ¶¶ 47, 467, 496, and 474; Exhs. 3, 22, 23).

Dr. Cockburn calculated patent damages using a hypothetical negotiation method: as had been suggested in a prior order, he began with a $100 million starting value that was based on a real-world negotiation between the parties in 2006. He then adjusted downward for patent apportionment, then adjusted upward for lost revenue that was expected from the licensing agreement (Rpt ¶ 19). The same methodology was used to calculate a hypothetical lost license fee for copyright infringement (Rpt Exhs. 23-24). Unjust enrichment was calculated by adding together Android’s ad revenue, the hardware revenue from selling Nexus phones, and applications sales in the Android Market store (Rpt ¶ 466). Lost profits were calculated by adding together lost revenue from licensing Java, ancillary revenue from back-end services, and revenue from a smart-phone operating system (Rpt ¶ 475). Using similar methodology, Dr. Cockburn also estimated future damages through the end of 2012 to be $1.2 billion in unjust enrichment for copyright infringement, $102.6 million in lost license fees for copyright infringement, and $205.2 million for patent damages (Cockburn Rpt Exhs. 22, 25, 18). Again, the grand total came to approximately two and a half billion dollars.

Following motion practice directed at the new substitute report, a tentative order issued on December 6, 2011 (Dkt. No. 642). Parties submitted critiques of the tentative order (Dkt. Nos. 651, 652), and arguments were heard at the final pretrial conference on December 21, 2011. Post-hearing briefs and responses were submitted on January 5 and 9. This order is the final order and it strikes major portions of the substitute report.

[1182]*1182ANALYSIS

An expert witness may provide opinion testimony “if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.” FRE 702. District courts thus “are charged with a ‘gatekeeping role,’ the objective of which is to ensure that expert testimony admitted into evidence is both reliable and relevant.” Sundance, Inc. v. DeMonte Fabricating Ltd., 550 F.3d 1356, 1360 (Fed.Cir.2008).

Google raises several objections to Dr. Cockburn’s report. Each of Google’s arguments will be addressed below.

1. Copyright Lost License Fee.

Dr. Cockburn calculated actual damages for copyright infringement using the lost license fee approach. He did so by determining what Google would have paid to license the use of the copyrights at issue in a hypothetical negotiation with Sun at the time of infringement. Google now argues that the hypothetical negotiation approach cannot be used to calculate the lost licensee fee. Google contends that any hypothetical negotiation would be excessively speculative under Daubert because Sun never licensed an incompatible version of Java to competitors, and would not have done so with Google at the time of infringement. Therefore any calculation of actual damages based on a hypothetical negotiation must be excessively speculative (Br. 4, Supp. Br. 11-14). This order disagrees.

In the context of copyright infringement, the hypothetical lost license fee can be based on the fair market value of the copyright at the time of infringement. Polar Bear Productions, Inc. v. Timex Corp., 384 F.3d 700, 709 (9th Cir. 2004). “To determine the work’s ‘market value’ at the time of the infringement, we have endorsed a hypothetical approach: what a willing buyer would have been reasonably required to pay to a willing seller for the owner’s work.” Mackie v. Rieser, 296 F.3d 909, 917 (9th Cir.2002) (citations omitted). This standard is similar, if not the same, as the standard for calculating a reasonably royalty in the context of patent damages. For a reasonable royalty for patent infringement, the hypothetical negotiation also requires the court to envision the terms of a licensing agreement reached as the result of a supposed meeting between the patentee and the infringer at the time infringement began. Rite-Hite Corp. v. Kelley Co., Inc., 56 F.3d 1538, 1554 (Fed.Cir.1995).

Google argues that because Sun never licensed its Java copyrights in agreements that also allowed the licensee to develop an incompatible version of Java, any calculation of the hypothetical lost license fee would be incurably speculative under Daubert. This argument fights the hypothetical. In order to calculate the lost licensing fee, the hypothetical licensing agreement must be reached as the result of a hypothetical meeting between the parties. See Rite-Hite Corp., 56 F.3d at 1554 (patent reasonable royalty). Although our court of appeals has not explicitly held so, the Second Circuit has held that whether the parties might in fact have negotiated is irrelevant to the purpose of the lost licensing fee calculation for copyright damages. On Davis v. The Gap, Inc., 246 F.3d 152, 171-72 (2nd Cir.2001). The hypothetical negotiation is only a means for calculating the fair market value. It is the fair market value that must not be speculative under Daubert.

Dr. Cockburn had a non-speculative factual basis to value a license for an incompatible version of Java. Dr. Cockburn did so by starting with the real-world negotiations between Sun and Google for a com[1183]*1183patible Java, and then adjusting that amount up to compensate for the incompatibility. The amount of the upward adjustment was based on Sun’s own revenue projections at the time for the value of compatibility. Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
847 F. Supp. 2d 1178, 2012 WL 44485, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oracle-america-inc-v-google-inc-cand-2012.