Damages

Damages can be awarded if a patent has been infringed. Under U.S. law a patentee is entitled to damages adequate to compensate for any infringement and that compensation cannot be less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention by the infringer. Enhanced patent damages are appropriate to punish an infringer’s egregious, deliberate, or flagrant patent infringement. In Europe the scope of damages awarded for patent infringement and the process of how they are awarded varies between the different European states. In general a patent holder can claim the profits of the infringer or remuneration of its own lost profits (e.g. calculated in the form of a a reasonable license fee).

(Indirect) infringement, Belgium, Case Law, Damages, Extent of Protection, Mechanical Engineering, Procedure

(Cappuyns Intellectual Property Law )/

The Court of Appeal of Liège confirmed the President of the Commercial Court’s finding that the appellant had committed patent infringement, and ordered the reimbursement of costs of the saisie-contrefaçon (seizure of evidence), which were not considered damages but as procedural costs. Click here for the full text of this case. A summary of this case…

Damages, Enforcement, Procedure, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

Historically, damages used to be calculated in the so-called “execution” (i.e. enforcement) phase of the proceedings, i.e. a second phase of the proceedings aimed at implementing the declarations and orders included in the judgment handed down after declaratory infringement proceedings. Due to the abuse of this system, in practice, the “execution” phase resulted in complex…

Damages, Procedure, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

According to Article 65 of the European Patent Convention (“EPC”), when the European patent granted is not drafted in one of the official languages of the EPC, any contracting state may require that the patent owner file a translation of the patent with the national patent service within 3 months of the publication of the…

Damages, Enforcement, France, Injunction, Procedure

(Véron & Associés)/

Thanks to the constitutional revision of 23 July 2008 (which created Article 61-1 and amended Article 62 of the French Constitution), a new procedure to control the constitutionality of laws was introduced into French law, which came into force on 1st March 2010: the “priority question on constitutionality” (“question prioritaire de constitutionnalité”). Before this reform, the constitutionality could only be verified…