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KickerLJN NewslettersNewsSectionsThe Intellectual Property Strategist

<i>Lucent v. Gateway</i>: A Closer Look at Patent Damages

BY Cedric G. DeLaCruz
December 18, 2009

In a move signaling a heightening of evidentiary scrutiny for patent infringement damage calculations, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in Lucent Techs. v. Gateway, Inc., 2009 U.S. App. Lexis 20325 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 11, 2009), vacated and remanded an almost $358 million award to Lucent based on Microsoft's infringement of U.S. Patent 4,763,356, entitled “Touch screen form entry system” (hereinafter the “'356 patent”). The Federal Circuit affirmed the lower court's validity and infringement ruling, but sent the damage award back due to lack of sufficient evidentiary support for several Georgia-Pacific factors (see Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. U.S. Plywood Corp., 318 F. Supp. 1116, 1120 (S.D.N.Y. 1970)) and the entire market value rule.

The '356 Patent

Lucent initiated the underlying infringement suit against Gateway, in which Microsoft intervened, in 2002. Lucent alleged the following Microsoft products infringed the '356 patent: Microsoft Money, Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mobile. The '356 patent relates generally to computer data input using certain predefined tools and electronic completion of form fields, such as a bitmapped graphics field. Microsoft's Outlook calendar tool that allows the user to enter dates in an electronic manner was the central product feature at issue. The calendar tool displays a monthly calendar as a grid of numbered dates, along with graphical controls that allow the user to scroll to other dates, usually in a monthly time frame. Once the user selects a date with the tool, the software automatically then pre-fills the day, month, and year into the corresponding field in the calendar or appointment screen.

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