SCOTUS Could Make It Easier To Get Enhanced Damages For Infringement

The Supreme Court has accepted two cases that could end up lowering the bar to getting enhanced damages for infringement – damages that per statute can be as much as tripled under certain circumstances. As the result of the 2007 Federal Circuit decision in Seagate,, those circumstances came to be defined by a two-part test: The patent holder had to show there was “an objectively high likelihood” of infringement and the infringer knew it, or should have known it. The two cases to watch now are Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer, and Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc., which argue that two-part test should be abandoned and district courts should have broader discretion.