Federal Circuit Holds That Parent Company May Not Recover Lost Profits of Subsidiary in Infringement Action / 联邦法院裁定 母公司可能无法获得子公司因侵权行为导致利润损失的赔偿

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently held that a parent company may not recover the lost profits of a wholly owned subsidiary as damages in a patent infringement action, because the parent could not prove that the subsidiary’s profits from the diverted sales would have “inexorably flowed” to the parent. Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc., Nos. 07-1409, 07-1436, 2008 WL 2229783 (Fed. Cir. June 2, 2008). Thus, when one entity in a corporate family holds the patent rights, and another entity sells the products covered by the patent, the patent-holding entity is unlikely to be able to recover the “lost profits” of the entity that sold the relevant products. The Federal Circuit noted, however, that other bases for damages above “reasonable royalty” damages may be appropriate. Mars at *5.

在Mars, Inc. v. Coin Acceptors, Inc., Nos. 07-1409, 07-1436, 2008 WL 2229783 (Fed. Cir. June 2, 2008)一案中，美国联邦巡回上诉法院最近裁定，母公司可能无法从其全资子公司因专利侵权行为所致的利润损失中获得赔付，因为母公司不能证明其全资子公司从该销售中获取的利润“无情地流入”母公司。因此，当公司家族中的一家实体拥有专利权而另一家实体销售为该专利所覆盖的产品时，持有专利的实体不太可能从售卖相关产品的实体的“损失利润”中得到赔付。但是，联邦法院注意到，超过“合理许可费”的其它赔偿金计算基础可以是恰当的。

For the full story, please view the PDF.