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Proving Willful Infringement: In re Seagate Technology, LLC

By John M. Cone

Many complaints for patent infringement allege that a defendant's conduct is willful, justifying an award of enhanced damages. The Seagate Technology decision substantially increases the difficulty of proving willful infringement. In re Seagate Technology, LLC, 2007 WL 2358677 (Fed. Cir. 2007).

For many years, Federal Circuit precedent following Underwater Devices, Inc. v. Morrison-Knudsen Co., 717 F.2d 1380 (Fed. Cir. 1983), placed on a potential infringer with actual notice of another's patent an affirmative duty to determine whether infringement is occurring. The affirmative duty included the duty to seek competent legal advice from counsel before starting the possibly infringing activity. If a defendant did not disclose an exculpatory counsel's opinion, Federal Circuit precedent allowed an adverse inference to be drawn, namely that no opinion had been obtained, or that the opinion was adverse. A party defending an allegation of willful infringement would thus face a difficult decision ' maintain the attorney/client privilege as to counsel's advice and opinions on infringement and validity and risk a finding that it had failed to exercise due care, or rely on the advice but waive privilege as to the opinion, the communications with opinion counsel, and that counsel's work product.

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