Abstract
The Supreme Court’s decision in Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. overruled the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s longstanding Seagate test and empowered district courts to exercise their discretion in deciding whether to enhance damages for willful patent infringement. In the three years since the Halo decision, district courts have developed their own approaches to addressing willfulness allegations at the various stages of litigation, including pleading, summary judgment, trial, and post-trial. This Article observes trends in how district courts have addressed willfulness claims at each stage of litigation, highlights factors courts have considered when declining to enhance damages for an infringer’s egregious misconduct, and identifies practice tips in view of the emerging trends in the case law.
