On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment of infringement, but vacated the damages award. The Federal Circuit found that Power Integrations presented insufficient evidence as a matter of law to invoke the EMVR. Namely, the Federal Circuit held that whenever an allegedly infringing product contains other valuable, unpatented features, the patentee must prove that those unpatented features did not cause consumers to purchase the product in order to rely upon the EMVR. In coming to this conclusion, the Federal Circuit noted that the accused products here contained other unpatented features, some of which were at issue in a separate lawsuit between the parties concerning different patents.
Patentees should be mindful of relying solely upon the EMVR when establishing their damages case. The Federal Circuit’s enumeration of the EMVR sets forth a high evidentiary standard and effectively requires patentees to prove a negative.