Sizable Damage Awards Have Investors Looking at Patents
Several large awards for damages levied against tech giants like Apple and Cisco are turning industry heads. Centripetal Networks was awarded nearly $2 billion by a Virginia district court, representing just one of several awards of over $100 million for patent infringement. An article in Bloomberg Law explains that investors, including litigation funders, are looking at these sizable awards as an impetus to invest in patents. Some have suggested that big tech companies have become complacent and overconfident in the likelihood of beating a patent-related action. This attitude can limit the ability of parties to meet at the negotiating table—necessitating a long and costly trial. Investing in patents, not unlike litigation funding itself, is recession-proof to a large degree, as it’s not correlated with the rest of the market. A 2019 survey of lit fin companies, in-house counsel, and law firms suggests tremendous interest in acquiring patents. Jack Lu is a chief economist at an intellectual property consultancy. He explains that willful patent infringement can realistically lead to triple damages. Lu sees the large verdicts as a message to patent owners, letting them know that the courts are serious about protecting their rights. That’s good news for tech companies, and for patent owners. The large awards coming down involve high-end tech, or in some cases, pharmaceutical patents. One reason the damages are so sizable is that they factor in the expected sales volume. In the history of the US, only nine cases have ever ended with a verdict of $1 billion or more. They’ve all happened since 2007, which would seem to indicate the intrinsic value of technology in society. Joshua Harris, VP at Burford Capital, expects that the kind of verdicts they’ve been seeing will continue to attract investors. Even if, Harris says, verdicts are lowered on appeal—an award in the multi-millions is still attractive to investors.