Delaware Patent Litigation Report : Delaware Intellectual Property Lawyer & Attorney : Morris James Law Firm : Delaware Patent Litigation Report

Defendant seeks a motion for new trial on all issues in light of Federal Court’s recent decision in In re Seagate which was issued ten months after the conclusion of the infringement trial in this matter.  Because Seagate applies retroactively to this case, there is no question that the jury instructions on willfulness, which applied the then-existing negligence standard articulated in Underwater Devices Inc. v. Morrison-Knudsen Co, were erroneous under the objective recklessness standard announced in Seagate.  The Seagate standard does not remove the issue of willfulness from the jury’s consideration.  Thus, a new trial is warranted where jury instructions under Seagate might have affected the verdict.  Following the Federal Circuit’s lead in Voda v. Cordis Corp. the Court finds that no Seventh Amendment problem exists from retrying willfulness under Seagate without ordering a new trial on infringement.  Bifurcation of the issues was appropriate.  While the jury may be permitted to hear aspects of the infringement and validity cases, it will not be able to nullify the earlier findings.