Panduit: A Test For All Seasons

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Law Firm: Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Patent
• Author: Mr Ted Mathias
• Published date: 24 October 2023

The Panduit test for determining lost profits in a patent case is almost fifty years old. The four-factor test doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it has persevered. Therefore, it is always of interest anytime there's a lost profits decision in a patent case where a court states that "given the particularities of [the] case, it is not clear that the Panduit test is appropriate."

In Lexmark Int'l Inc. v. Universal Imaging Indus., LLC, No. 8:18-cv-1047-WFJ-AEP, 2023 WL 6688588 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 12, 2023), the patentee incorporated microchips into its toner cartridges that work with its printers. The defendant sold microchips to third party cartridge manufacturers that work in the patentee's printers. It sought summary judgment on the patentee's lost profits claim because, according to the defendant, its microchips could not be considered "interchangeable" with the patentee's cartridges under the first Panduit factor. Quoting from the Federal Circuit's decision in Bic Leisure Prods. v. Windsurfing Int'l, the defendants asserted that the parties' products are not "substantially the same" and do not "compete[] in the same market for the same customers." 1 F.3d 1214, 1218-19 (Fed. Cir. 1993).

The district court denied the defendant's motion. It credited the patentee's arguments that (1) Panduit was a non-exclusive way to demonstrate lost profits, and (2) it would offer expert testimony that, but for the infringement, customers who purchased cartridges containing the defendant's microchips instead would have bought the patentee's products. To address the defendant's argument on the first Panduit factor, the court could have pointed to DePuy Spine v. Medtronic, where the Federal Circuit held that factor could be satisfied by evidence that there is general economic demand for "a product 'covered by the patent in suit.'" 567 F.3d 1314, 1330...