Convoyed Sales And Acceptable Substitutes

Addressing the issue of lost-profit damages, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the functional relationship test for convoyed sales and clarified what is an acceptable substitute under Grain Processing. American Seating Co. v. USSC Group, Inc., Case Nos. 07-1112, -1135 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 29, 2008) (Mayer J.).

American Seating owns U.S. Patent No. 5,888,038, directed at a wheelchair restraint system for securing wheelchairs to a mass transit vehicle that can be unobtrusively stored when no wheelchairs are present. American Seating filed suit in the Western District of Michigan against USSC for patent infringement. The two USSC's devices at issue were the VPRo I and the VPRo II. The district court held that the VPRo I infringed, but the VPRo II did not. The jury awarded lost-profit damages totaling approximately $2.3 million. The lost-profit damages included diverted collateral sales of