Firm Authors Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court to Overturn Rule Barring Recovery of Patent Damages Accrued Abroad

The firm authored an amicus curiae brief for the New York Intellectual Property Law Association, urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Federal Circuit’s bright-line rule against recovery of patent damages that accrue overseas, even when proximately caused by domestic patent infringement. 

The Federal Circuit’s per se bar to the recovery of such damages is at odds with well-settled precedent on compensating patent owners for damages resulting from U.S. infringement. The bar also finds no support in the presumption against extraterritorial application of U.S. law. The presumption is a canon of construction used in determining whether a given statute regulates conduct and transactions that occur abroad. It is entirely inapplicable to damages accruing from an infringer’s domestic conduct. 

The Supreme Court case is captioned WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp., No. 16-1011.

To read the full amicus curiae brief, please click here.