IP High Court Grand Panel Decisions on Calculating Amount of Damages

The Intellectual Property (IP) High Court Grand Panel handed down decisions on June 7, 2019, in an infringement lawsuit between Japanese cosmetics companies (Case No. 2018 (Ne) 10063). The main issues of this case relate to the methods for calculating the amount of damages based on the infringer’s profit (Article 102, paragraph 2 of the Patent Law), and based on reasonable royalty (Article 102, paragraph 3 of the Patent Law). These Grand Panel decisions will have a considerable impact, since they are expected to increase the amount of compensation as damages, and thereby act as a deterrent to intentional infringement. This article summarizes these court decisions.