Opinion ID: 809963
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Damages Amount

Text: Defendants seek remittitur or a new trial because the jury’s damages award was presumably calculated on a royalty base that includes sales under the ’749 Patent. The district court granted JMOL that the ’749 Patent is not infringed under the doctrine of equivalents. As discussed below, this court affirms that ruling. The ’749 Patent expired in November 2006—about four months later than the ’850 Patent, which expired in June 2006. Both parties’ experts agreed at trial that if the ’749 Patent was found not infringed, the sales base should not include sales that occurred after the ’850 Patent expired. For example, the jury was presented with a sales base for Demant through November 2006 of $417 million, compared to only $357 million through expiration of the ’850 Patent in June 2006. Because the jury found both patents infringed, it presumably used the larger sales base in calculating its damages figures. Defendants suggest that this court can grant relief by simply determining the effective royalty rate granted by the jury and multiplying it by the undisputed lower sales base for products sold before the ’850 Patent expired. Defendants waived this argument by not asking the district court to reduce the damages award in the event it granted their motion for JMOL of noninfringement of the ’749 Patent. Defendants presented an alternate sales base to the jury in the event it found only the ’850 Patent infringed, and could have made the same argument to the district court in their post-trial motions for JMOL and remittitur. Defendants also did not file a motion for reconsideration with the district court after their motion for JMOL of noninfringement of the ’749 Patent was granted. This court will not consider arguments raised for the first time on appeal. ENERGY TRANSPORT v. WILLIAM DEMANT 24 Even if Defendants had not waived this argument, this court cannot “correct” a damages figure by extrapolating a royalty rate from the jury’s lump sum damages award and multiplying that royalty rate by a revised sales base. “Except in those cases in which it is apparent as a matter of law that certain identifiable sums included in the verdict should not have been there, the court may not arbitrarily reduce the amount of damages, for to do so would deprive the parties of their constitutional right to a jury.” 11 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 2815 (2d ed. Supp. 2012). An “identifiable sum” typically must be separately listed on the jury verdict form. Garrett v. Faust, 183 F.2d 625 (3d Cir. 1950) (verdict form separately listed damages resulting from misrepresentation, and district court appropriately deducted that amount from final award because there was insufficient evidence of misrepresentation); Cornell University v. HewlettPackard Co., 609 F. Supp. 2d 279 (N.D.N.Y. 2009) (Rader, J. by designation) (reducing damages by multiplying “jury’s uncontroverted royalty rate of 0.8 percent” by legally correct royalty base). Here, the verdict form only required the jury to award a lump sum damages figure for each Defendant. The jury was not asked to allocate the damages awarded over the two patents at issue and was not required to specify a reasonable royalty rate. There is thus no clearly identifiable sum in the verdict that is allocable to the noninfringed ’749 Patent. While Defendants could have sought remittitur from the district court, this court cannot simply adjust the jury’s damages award under the circumstances of this case. This court also considered Defendants’ other arguments regarding the amount of the damages award. In sum, Defendants have not shown that the jury’s award is 25 ENERGY TRANSPORT v. WILLIAM DEMANT “outrageously high” or unsupported by the evidence. RiteHite Corp., 56 F.3d at 1554.