Today the Federal Circuit held that the Court has jurisdiction to entertain appeals from determinations on patent infringement liability where damages and/or willfulness issues have yet to be decided due to bifurcation. Robert Bosch, LLC v. Pylon Manufacturing Corp., No. 2011-1363, -1364, at 26-27 (Fed. Cir. June 14. 2013). As discussed here, the Federal Circuit decided sua sponte to grant a rehearing en banc on these issues in August 2012.
The Court explained that this case “does not involve the question of whether the district court has the authority to bifurcate the willfulness and infringement issues. As a general matter, it does.” Id. at 22. It “ma[d]e clear that district courts, in their discretion, may bifurcate willfulness and damages issues from liability issues in any given case.” Id. at 26. The Court did observe, with regard to its holding on bifurcation of liability and damages, that “[m]odern patent damages trials, with their attendant discovery, are notoriously complex and expensive. . . . Given the substantial reversal rate of liability determinations on appeal, the whole expense of a damages trial is often wasted. Accordingly, those policy concerns that motivated Congress to grant jurisdiction over cases that are final except for an accounting [of damages] support our holding today.” Id. at 20.
Robert Bosch, LLC v. Pylon Manufacturing Corp., No. 2011-1363, -1364 (Fed. Cir. June 14. 2013)
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