The year in damages in the US

December 23 2014

Compared to 2013, this year has seen fewer blockbuster damages awards, with none of more than $500 million. But courts still awarded more than $100 million in eight cases

The largest award came out of the District of Delaware, which ordered Philips to pay Masimo $467 million for infringing patents covering technology used in fingertip devices that measure blood oxygen and pulse rates.

This followed the same court in January awarding Edwards LifeScience $394 million for Medtronic CoreValve for infringing patents covering a heart-valve device. The two companies later agreed to settle all global patent litigation in May, with Edwards LifeSciences paying a $750 million one-time payment and ongoing royalty payments.

Carnegie Melon University, ViaSatr, Alfred E Mann Foundation, WesternGeco, Apple and Power Integrations were also awarded damages of more than $100 million in 2014.

This compares with 2013 when two awards of more than $500 million were given. DuPont was ordered to pay $1 billion of damages to Monsanto in a GMO seed case. And Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $599 million in one of two large awards that year.

Managing IP will be publishing an in-depth look at the year in damages in early January.

Top damages awards 2014
Rank	Against	Beneficiary	Case	Court	Total damages
1	Philips Electronics North America	Masimo Corporation	Masimo Corporation v Philips Electronics North America Corporation	DED	$467m
2	Medtronic CoreValve	Edwards Lifesciences	Edwards Lifesciences v Medtronic Corevalve	DED	$394m
3	Marvell Technology Group	Carnegie Mellon University	Carnegie Mellon University v Marvell Technology Group	PAWD	$367m
4	Space Systems/Loral	ViaSat	Viasat v Space Systems/Loral	CASD	$283m
5	Cochlear Corporation	Alfred E Mann Foundation For Scientific Research	Alfred E Mann Foundation for Scientific Research v Cochlear Corporation	CACD	$131m
6	Samsung Electronics	Apple	Apple v Samsung Electronics	CAND	$120m
7	ION Geophysical Corporation	WesternGeco	WesternGeco v ION Geophysical Corporation	TXSD	$115m
8	Fairchild Semiconductor International	Power Integrations	Power Integrations v Fairchild Semiconductor International	CAND	$105m
9	Google	SimpleAir	SimpleAir v Google	TXED	$85m
10	Sorenson Communications	Ultratec	Ultratec v Sorenson Communications	WIWD	$44m