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Willful Patent Infringement And Enhanced Damages After In Re Seagate: An Empirical Study, Christopher B. Seaman

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Willful patent infringement is a critical issue in patent litigation, as it can result in an award of up to treble (enhanced) damages. In a 2007 decision, In re Seagate, 497 F.3d 1360 (en banc), the Federal Circuit significantly altered the standard governing willful infringement by requiring the patentee to prove at least "objective recklessness" by the accused infringer. Many observers predicted that this heightened standard would result in far fewer willfulness findings and enhanced damage awards. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive empirical study of Seagate's actual impact in patent litigation.

This paper fills that gap by …