Supreme Court Holds Good Faith Belief Of Invalidity Not A Defense To Induced Infringement Claim

The U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday in Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc. (No. 13-896) that a defendant's belief regarding patent invalidity is not a defense to a claim of induced infringement. Justice Kennedy authored the majority opinion, while Justice Scalia (joined by Chief Justice Roberts) dissented. Justice Breyer took no part in the decision.

Commil sued Cisco for both direct and induced infringement of a patent relating to implementing short-range wireless networks. At trial, the jury concluded Cisco directly infringed, Cisco did not induce infringement, and the patent was valid. Commil then moved for a new trial, which the district court granted. During the second trial, in defending against Commil's claim of induced infringement, Cisco argued that it had a good-faith belief that Commil's patent was invalid and sought to introduce evidence supporting that position. The district court ruled that such evidence was inadmissible.

Cisco appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which held in part in a split decision that "evidence of an accused inducer's good-faith belief of invalidity may negate the requisite intent for induced infringement" and saw "no principled distinction between a good-faith belief of invalidity and a good-faith belief of non-infringement for the purpose of whether a defendant possessed the specific intent to induce infringement of a patent." Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 720 F.3d 1361, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Discussion of that decision can be found here. Both parties filed petitions for rehearing en banc, which were denied. Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 737 F.3d 699, 700 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Commil then sought certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, which was granted.

Supreme Court Majority Opinion

Before turning to the actual question presented, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its holding in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. ___ (2011) that induced infringement requires that the defendant both knew of the patent and knew that "the induced acts constitute patent infringement." Id. at ___ (slip op. at 10). Both Commil and the government had argued to the Supreme Court that Global-Tech only required knowledge of the patent for purposes of the "knowledge" requirement for induced infringement.

The Supreme Court next turned to the question presented, i.e., whether a defendant's good-faith belief in invalidity can serve as a defense to induced infringement. In answering...