{"id":3930,"date":"2015-10-15T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/supreme-court-denies-good-faith-protection-against-indirect-patent-infringement-in-case-of-presumed-patent-invalidity-commil-v-cisco\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T14:42:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:42:48","slug":"supreme-court-denies-good-faith-protection-against-indirect-patent-infringement-in-case-of-presumed-patent-invalidity-commil-v-cisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/supreme-court-denies-good-faith-protection-against-indirect-patent-infringement-in-case-of-presumed-patent-invalidity-commil-v-cisco\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court denies good faith protection against indirect patent infringement in case of presumed patent invalidity (Commil v. Cisco)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anyone who supplies a device that performs a patented process to a third party without the right to use it can be held liable for induced infringement. Liability depends on the supplier knowing about the patent and being aware that the use of the device leads to a patent infringement. Is it possible to defend oneself by arguing that the patent has been deemed invalid? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Commil USA is the owner of a process patent for the realization of short-range WLAN. The patented process creates faster and more reliable communication between mobile devices and base stations. <\/p>\n\n

Commil took legal action against Cisco for patent infringement on the basis of this patent. In the first instance, Cisco was sentenced to pay damages of $3.7 million for direct patent infringement through the supply of devices. The indirect infringement claim was rejected in the first trial. Commil therefore sought a second trial. <\/p>\n\n

Shortly before the second trial, Cisco filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to have the Patents examined for invalidity. However, the official examination did not lead to revocation, but to confirmation of the Patents. <\/p>\n\n

In the second trial, Cisco was sentenced to pay damages of $63.7 million for induced infringement. Cisco had unsuccessfully argued that it had believed in good faith that the Patents were invalid and had therefore not met the requirements for induced infringement. If the Patents were invalid, there could be no patent infringement and consequently Cisco could not have known that an infringement was being committed because it believed the Patents were invalid. <\/p>\n\n

Cisco appealed to the CAFC, which overturned the first-instance judgment and ordered the court to consider Cisco’s evidence regarding the alleged invalidity. An invalid Patents could not be infringed. It amounts to the same thing whether one assumes in good faith that the patent is invalid or that it has not been infringed. <\/p>\n\n

The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case and disagreed with the CAFC. The defense that one had a good faith belief that the patent was invalid does not protect against liability for inducement of patent infringement. <\/p>\n\n

While the intention of the infringer is irrelevant in the case of direct patent infringement, it plays a role in the case of inducement of patent infringement. According to the recent Supreme Court decision “Global-Tech Appliances v. SEB”, it is important that the defendant was aware of the patent and that he knew that the actions of third parties induced by him were patent infringing. <\/p>\n\n

The Supreme Court points out that the validity of the patent and patent infringement are two fundamentally different issues. As long as the Patents has not been officially or judicially destroyed, the presumption of validity applies. In addition, the requirements for destruction are relatively high, namely “clear and convincing evidence”. This requirement would be undermined by the protection of good faith with regard to patent invalidity. <\/p>\n\n

There is also an important practical reason for not allowing good faith protection. Anyone who believes that the patent is invalid has the option of having the patent reviewed in various proceedings. If the protection of good faith regarding patent invalidity were admissible, anyone sued for incitement to patent infringement would wrap themselves up in a thousand arguments about the believed invalidity. This would make the process even more time-consuming and blur the boundary between believed invalidity and actual grounds for invalidity. <\/p>\n\n

With this judgment, those who are attacked for inciting patent infringement are required to actively bring down the Patents.<\/p>\n\n

Left: www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/14pdf\/13-896_l53m.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who supplies a device that performs a patented process to a third party without the right to use it can be held liable for induced infringement. Liability depends on the supplier knowing about the patent and being aware that the use of the device leads to a patent infringement. Is it possible to defend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nicht-kategorisiert"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klunker-ip.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}