A few months ago, we provided background on this matter and discussed the available oral argument. A summary of Intersil’s appeal is provided by the Federal Circuit:
The Federal Circuit issued an opinion reversing the District Court regarding disgorgement of profits. The Federal Circuit found that the monetary award for trade secret damages should be vacated, in part, because only one of three asserted trade secrets was found to have been misappropriated; whereas the plaintiff expert had advanced a single damages value concerning all three of those trade secrets… and the resulting monetary award had not been allocated on a trade-secret-by-trade-secret basis.
There were other issues relevant from this opinion. The Federal Circuit directs damages experts to embrace a finite period of time when assessing disgorgement of profits in trade secrets matters, especially as it concerns analysis involving a supposed “head start.”
The court also decided that TAOS was not entitled to a jury decision on disgorgement, and that the District Court should make that determination.
The Federal Circuit rejected “double recovery” of damages/monetary remedy awards on sales of the same accused product. In this instance, it was unacceptable that a reasonable royalty should be paid on the same accused sales for which disgorgement was afforded.
Finally, we were hoping for guidance on the issue of gross versus net profits, but alas… the Federal Circuit only briefly notes in passing:
