When someone wins a patent infringement lawsuit, the court may order monetary damages or an injunction to stop the infringer from manufacturing the product. The damages are often equal to the amount the infringer made from the product, and proving speculative profits is difficult.
Patent infringement damages refer to court-ordered remedies in the event a person wins a patent infringement lawsuit. When someone owns a patent, he owns the rights to a given invention or the idea for a given invention. If another individual interferes with the patent owner’s property right, patent infringement damages can be assessed by the court.
Patent infringement damages are often monetary damages. When a patent is granted, the purpose is to protect the individual or the company that had the idea, whether the idea was a design for software or a formula for a drug. Consequently, the patent granted the person who owns it the exclusive right to manufacture, sell, distribute or profit from it. If another person unlawfully profits from the creation or distribution of a patented object, that person may be deprived of those profits.
Determining the appropriate amount of monetary damages awarded in a patent litigation case can be difficult, as it can be difficult for the patentee to prove how much he would have gained from the patent were it not for the interference of the individual who benefited illegally. The court will not award monetary compensation for speculative profits. In other words, if person A believes he would have made $100,000 US dollars (USD) on the patent if person B hadn’t interfered, person A must somehow prove that he would actually have made that amount – the court won’t just take his word that he would make that money.
Very often, therefore, the patent infringement damages are equal to the amount that Person B actually got out of the product. For example, if person A created a design for a piece of software and patented it, and then person B came along and made the same product in violation of the patent, the court will look at how much person B made from the sale of the infringing product. If Person B earned $100,000 USD, the monetary damages will likely be $100,000 USD.
However, patent infringement damages are not limited to monetary damages. In some cases, the court also issues an injunction. An injunction is a civil order to cease and desist. For example, the patent owner can ask the court to order that the infringer stop manufacturing the product. The court will issue the injunction ordering the offender to stop production, and if you don’t, you can be held in contempt of court and arrested.
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