Federal Circuit Clarifies That Willful Infringement Does Not Require Egregious Conduct

On September 28, 2021, in a precedential opinion, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in SRI Int'l, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Nos. 2020-1685, -1704, clarified its decision from a prior appeal in the same case to hold that a finding of willful infringement requires only deliberate or intentional infringement, not egregious, wanton, malicious, or bad-faith infringement conduct.

The District Court Initially Finds Willful Infringement, the First Appeal, and Remand to the District Court

SRI sued Cisco in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of two computer networking patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 6,711,615 and 6,484,203. A jury found that Cisco willfully infringed certain claims of the asserted patents and awarded SRI over $22.6 million in reasonable royalty damages. Following post-trial briefing, the district court awarded SRI attorney fees and costs, and based on the jury's willful infringement