WD escapes half a billion in patent damages as judge trims award to $1 Western Digital has succeeded in having the sum it owed from a patent infringement case reduced from $553 million down to just $1 in post-trial motions, when the judge found the plaintiff's claims had shifted during the course of the litigation. The storage biz was held by a California jury to have infringed on data encryption …
Lawyers got their millions in fees, so to them it's a win. And now the patent is upheld, so from now on Spex can force everyone else to negotiate royalties for the future. In the end they lost their money but won the case to get more money.
And yes, these patents are shit and should have not be granted at all.
It's the republican way - dismantle the axiom that "a jury's verdict remain inviolate".
There is no justice when a jury's verdict is set aside (absent clear reversible error not relevant here). For the life of our legal system, the one thing that business couldn't control was a jury verdict. That's changing. There has been a 35 year concentrated effort to chip away at that legal foundation. Follow the money. Look at the amounts poured into state judicial races that were never supposed to be political to begin with. Look at the political appointments and bastardizing organizations like the Heritage Foundation and right-wing operators like Leonard Leo. Look at supreme court justices that receive more from their Dallas billionaire backer than they are payed in salary. The corrupting influence on the judicial system is by design.
Each new hurdle raised, such as evidence from a "damages expert" to sufficiently "tie" the amount of lost royalties to damages, becomes a tool an inclined judge (or reviewing court) can use to alter or set aside the decision of the jury. The entire judicial approach has changed from upholding a jury verdict if there is any way the verdict can be upheld, to one where the jury verdict means nothing unless supported by proof beyond any reasonable doubt. Essentially turning the legal system on its head.
On the flip side, $1 in compensation is called "'nominal damages". It is the minimum a court can award and still uphold the judgement which is a predicate for the victor recovering attorney's fees, etc. So it could have been worse...
WD were found liable, but SPEX failed to prove they'd actually lost any money because of it, or rather they couldn't put a financial value (with evidence) on their losses.
If the judge had thrown the case out, SPEX could have just tried again. But because the ruling stands, that's it. Double Jeopardy and all that.
Patent violation is patent violation. The judged confirmed that was the case
Actual damages should not matter in this case. The damages awarded are supposed to be Compensatory Damages for patent infringement, actual damages are irrelevant or at best optional
There is something very wrong with the outcome of this case. It doesnt follow normal legal guidelines or precedents and I suspect that it wont be the final result as it gets escalated
True, but it won't happen.
What we need to do is actually to give everyone a patent on application and then force them to defend it when they want to use it.
Currently, most patent offices give examiners 10 hours in total to examine the patent, find prior art and do any office actions. Not enough time for the job.
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For those wondering why something like this can happen, look to the NFL Sunday Ticket damages that went from treble for monopolist ($1.2 billion), to absolute zero because the jury wasn't given a valid basis of which to determine damages per the judge because the "expert" was wildly guestimating. The NFL was still found liable by the judge.
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