Trustees of Boston University v. Everlight Electronics Co.

141 F. Supp. 3d 139, 2015 WL 6453134
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Trustees of Boston University v. Everlight Electronics Co.. Read the opinion of the Court — 212 F. Supp. 3d 254
District Court, D. Massachusetts·Decided October 23, 2015·No. Consolidated Civil Action No. 12-11935-PBS; Civil Action No. 12-12326-PBS, Civil Action No. 12-12330-PBS·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Saris, Chief Judge

Plaintiff Trustees of Boston University (BU) has filed suit against Defendants Epistar Corporation, Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., and Lite-On, Inc., alleging infringement of U.S. Patent No. 5,686,738. Before the Court is defendants’ Daubert motion in limine to exclude certain opinions and testimony of BU’s damages expert, Alan Ratliff, related to his reasonable royalty base calculation (Docket No. 1415). The defendants argue that Mr. Ratliff makes four critical. errors in his expert report on damages that render his opinion on the reasonable royalty base unreliable under Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 703, and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509.U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. [142]*1422786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993). The defendants specifically allege that Mr. Ratliff (1) uses the wrong royalty base for Epistar’s alleged induced infringement; (2) fails to apportion the. royalty base for Everlight and Lite-On to include only revenue attributable to the patented feature; (3) incorrectly includes pre-notice direct sales by Everlight and Lite-On in the royalty base for Epistar’s inducement liability;', and (4) includes design-win sales in Everlight’s and Lite-On’s royalty bases that did' not involve a commission paid to a U.S. sales agent in contravention of the design-win theory.

After review of the damages expert reports, the parties’ submissions, and the applicable law, I DENY the motion with respect to the first three theories. The Court will not reach the defendants’ fourth argument on the errors in Mr. Ratliffs reasonable royalty base related to the design-win theory at this time because the Court has deferred resolution of the design win issues in this case. See Docket No. 1476. I will address the other three arguments in turn.

I. Using Everlight and Lite-On LED Package Sales Revenue as the Royalty Base for All Defendants

A The Hypothetical Negotiation Approach

Under 35 U.S.C. § 284, upon finding for the claimant in a patent infringement case, “the court shall award the claimant damages adequate to compensate for the infringement, but in no event less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention by the infringer, together with interest and costs as fixed by the court.” 35 U.S.C. § 284. The patentee bears the burden of proving damages. Lucent Techs., Inc. v. Gateway, Inc., 580 F.3d 1301, 1324 (Fed.Cir.2009). “To properly carry this burden, the patentee must sufficiently tie the expert testimony on damages to the facts of the case.” Uniloc, USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., 632 F.3d 1292, 1315 (Fed.Cir.2011) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

There are several approaches for calculating a reasonable royalty. Id. Here, the parties have all adopted the most common method, the hypothetical negotiation approach, which “attempts,to ascertain the royalty upon which the parties would have agreed had they successfully negotiated an agreement just before infringement began.” Virnetx, Inc. v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 767 F.3d 1308, 1326 (Fed.Cir.2014); Lucent, 580 F.3d at 1324-25. “The hypothetical negotiation tries, as best as possible, to recreate the ex ante licensing negotiation scenario and to describe the resulting agreement.” Lucent, 580 F.3d at 1325. This analysis-“necessarily involves an element of approximation and uncertainty.” Id. “A reasonable royalty may be a lump-sum payment not calculated on a per unit basis, but it may also be, and often is, a-running payment that varies with the number of infringing units.” Virnetx, 767 F.3d at 1326. If a running royalty payment is selected, “it generally has two prongs: a royalty base and a royalty rate.” Id

BU seeks to call Mr. Ratliff as an expert witness to testify at trial regarding the most likely form of a hypothetical license agreement between BU and the defendants. Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which codified the Supreme Court’s holding in Daubert, governs, the. admissibility of expert evidence. Under Daubert and Rule 702, district courts “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) (quoting Daubert, 509 U.S. at 597, 113 S.Ct. 2786); see also Undoc, 632 F.3d at 1315. “While questions regarding which facts are most relevant for calculating a [143]*143reasonable royalty are properly left to the jury, a critical prerequisite is that the underlying methodology be sound.” Virnetx, 767 F.3d at 1328.

B. Apportionment and the Entire Market Value Rule

The Federal Circuit has repeatedly emphasized that when “small elements of multi-component products are accused of infringement, calculating a royalty on the entire product carries a considerable risk that the patentee will be improperly compensated for non-infringing components of that product.” LaserDynamics, Inc. v. Quanta Computer, Inc., 694 F.3d 51, 66-67 (Fed.Cir.2012); see also Virnetx, 767 F.3d at 1326 (collecting cases). As a result, courts generally require “that royalties be based not on the entire product, but instead on the ‘smallest salable patent-practicing unit.’ ” LaserDynamics, 694 F.3d at 67 (quoting Cornell Univ. v. Hewlett-Packard Co., 609 F.Supp.2d 279, 283, 287-88 (N.D.N.Y.2009)). “The entire market value rule is a narrow exception to this general rule.” Id. Under the entire market value rule, if the patentee can prove “that the patented feature drives demand for an entire multi-component product, a patentee may be awarded damages as a percentage of revenues or profits attributable to the entire product.” Id.

If a patentee cannot show that “the patented feature creates the basis for customer demand or substantially creates the value of the component parts,” then “principles of apportionment apply.” Virnetx, 767 F.3d at 1326. The entire market value rule originates in Supreme Court precedent requiring that the patentee “must in every case give evidence tending to separate or apportion the defendant’s profits and the patentee’s damages between the patented feature and the unpatented features, and such evidence must be reliable and tangible, and not conjectural or speculative.” Garretson v. Clark, 111 U.S. 120, 121, 4 S.Ct. 291, 28 L.Ed. 371 (1884); Virnetx, 767 F.3d at 1326; LaserDynamics, 694 F.3d at 67. The Federal Circuit has “cautioned against reliance on the entire market value of the accused products because it cannot help but skew the damages horizon for the jury, regardless of the contribution of the patented component to this revenue.” ■ Virnetx, 767 F.3d. at 1327 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

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Trustees of Boston University v. Everlight Electronics Co., 141 F. Supp. 3d 139, 2015 WL 6453134 (D. Mass. 2015).

141 F. Supp. 3d 139 (Trustees of Boston University v. Everlight Electronics Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Garretson v. Clark
111 U.S. 120 (Supreme Court, 1884)
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
509 U.S. 579 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp.
632 F.3d 1292 (Federal Circuit, 2011)
Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. Gateway, Inc.
580 F.3d 1301 (Federal Circuit, 2009)
Sundance, Inc. v. DeMonte Fabricating Ltd.
550 F.3d 1356 (Federal Circuit, 2008)
Laserdynamics, Inc. v. Quanta Computer, Inc.
694 F.3d 51 (Federal Circuit, 2012)
Cornell University v. Hewlett-Packard Co.
609 F. Supp. 2d 279 (N.D. New York, 2009)
Virnetx, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.
767 F.3d 1308 (Federal Circuit, 2014)
Fonar Corp. v. General Electric Co.
107 F.3d 1543 (Federal Circuit, 1997)