The Federal Circuit today upheld a judgment against Microsoft for infringing a patent on a "point and shoot interface" that links spreadsheets to database records. The court also vacated a post-judgment award of $0.12 per infringing unit because, it held, the lower court didn’t explain the amount in enough detail. A reasonable royalty, the court pointed out, should take into account that the judgment of infringement changed the parties’ legal relations and heightened the risk to the infringer. Amado v. Microsoft Corp., No. 06-1236 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 26, 2008).
Blawgletter got a whiff of an impression that the panel believes the district court ought to increase the per unit award above $0.12 — possibly to as much as $2.00 per unit. See id., slip op. at 14 n.2 (suggesting that royalty could range between $0.04 and $2.00).
