Significant 2018 Patent Decisions And A Look Ahead

This year the Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Federal District Courts penned a number of opinions impacting patent law. Here are some key takeaways from the past year.

1. A patent owner may collect lost profits based on foreign sales.

In WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp., 138 S. Ct. 2129 (2018), the Supreme Court reversed the Federal Circuit and allowed a patent owner to collect lost profits based on foreign sales, despite the Patent Act's seemingly limited territorial scope. The Supreme Court held that a patent owner may collect lost profits based on foreign sales when components of the patented invention are exported from the United States and are "especially adapted for use in the invention" and "combined outside of the United States," under subsection 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(2) of the patent statute. The Court's reasoning has the potential to allow patent owners to recover lost profits based on foreign sales in