ERS Group economists have provided economic and financial analyses in a wide variety of intellectual property cases, including patent infringement, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, false and misleading advertising, and unfair competition.

We assist attorneys with all phases of intellectual property litigation, including development and review of discovery, creation of economic and financial models to analyze damages, critique of the analyses of opposing experts, and preparation of expert testimony. Expertise and experience enable our economists to take a broad perspective on the full range of issues that arise in intellectual property damage matters.

Our professionals have extensive experience assessing damages in commercial litigation in a wide range of industries and matters.  This experience allows our experts  to address and advise regarding additional considerations when appropriate, including those involving tortuous interference, antitrust, contractual claims and fraud claims.

Economic and market principles have increasingly been appreciated by clients and courts in assessing intellectual property damages issues.  Important manifestations of this trend include the use of relevant market definition and the assessment of the economic consequences of the use of potential non-infringing alternatives.  We have expertise in applying economic analysis for intellectual property damages such as: lost profits analyses (including lost unit sales, price erosion, margin erosion, and the implications of accelerated market entry); reasonable royalty analyses; assessment of unjust enrichment; and calculation of prejudgment interest.

In addition to work on a wide variety of damages issues, clients ask us to research market background, to address evidence of commercial success associated with a patent or the products that embody the patent at issue, as well as to evaluate licensing programs and strategies used by the patent owner.  ERS Group economists have estimated irreparable harm, evaluated the appropriate amount of a bond in the event a preliminary injunction issues, and critiqued damages related to claims of lawyer malpractice in the prosecution of patents.

Our experts testify regarding damages assessed as lost profits, reasonable royalties, plaintiffs’ actual damages, defendants’ unjust enrichment, losses due to price erosion, gains due to accelerated market entry, and damages associated with the impact of false advertising.  Our frequent involvement with intellectual property and other commercial litigation matters in high tech industries provides the experience required to better understand both the relevant licensing history and the critical market issues for the appropriate assessment of damages.  ERS Group experts have testified on intellectual property matters in numerous courts across the country.

Reasonable royalties Unjust enrichment Lost Profits Commercial Success Price erosion Valuation of IP assets		Prejudgment interest False advertising damages Economic evaluation of non-infringing alternatives Negotiation of patent licenses Intervening rights Patent misuse

In recent years, significant companies in the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries have repeatedly relied on ERS Group's expertise in analyzing the facts of their intellectual property cases, including Freescale Semiconductor, SanDisk Corporation, Quanta Computer Inc. and Panasonic/Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

Mediatek, Inc. v. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ERS Group prepared an expert report and provided deposition testimony analyzing patent damages in response to allegations of infringement relating to semiconductor technology used in defendants’ optical disk drives, televisions, and digital cameras.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd v. Quanta Computer, et al. ERS Group analyzed notebook computer components, the personal computer industry and licensing practices, and critiqued plaintiff’s damages analysis. This resulted in an expert report and deposition testimony addressing appropriate reasonable royalties for a patent asserted to cover certain keyboard-based functionality in notebook computers.

Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. V. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. And Panasonic Corporation of North America ERS Group prepared nine expert reports and provided deposition testimony addressing damages for alleged infringement of nineteen patents in two lawsuits related to certain plasma display panel and plasma TV technologies owned by plaintiff and counter-plaintiff. The case settled with both companies cross-licensing their respective technology.

LG Electronics, Inc. v. Q-Lity Computer, Inc., et al. ERS Group prepared expert reports and provided deposition testimony on behalf of co-defendant Quanta Computer responding to plaintiff’s patent damages analysis and addressing reasonable royalties and licensing practices associated with personal computer chipset and web conference software technologies alleged to be included in Wintel PCs.

Motorola Inc. v. Analog Devices, Inc. ERS Group prepared expert reports and provided deposition testimony addressing patent damages associated with semiconductor designs and manufacturing processes. The two companies resolved the case resulting in a favorable settlement for Motorola.

STMicroelectronics, Inc. v. SanDisk Corporation ERS Group prepared expert reports and provided deposition testimony assessing patent damages and critiquing plaintiff’s reasonable royalty analysis on two separate matters in the Eastern District of Texas. The project involved two SanDisk patents relating to NOR flash memory and many STMicro patents regarding packaging techniques, electrostatic discharge protection circuits, and memory algorithms alleged to be used by the defendant’s flash memory card products.

Information Technology Innovation, LLC v. Motorola, Inc. and Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. ERS Group analyzed semiconductor fabrication plant organization and product flow techniques as well as software and patent licensing practices. ERS Group critiqued the plaintiff’s expert’s reasonable royalty damages analysis related to a patented process asserted to cover production simulation software.

TGIP, Inc. v. AT&T Corporation ERS Group analyzed the markets and technology relating to long distance prepaid calling cards, prepared an expert report addressing reasonable royalties and evaluating plaintiff’s damages assessment. Our expert provided trial testimony on reasonable royalty damages.

St. Jude Medical v. Guidant Corp. ERS Group performed an analysis of the cardiac rhythm management industry and the role of certain patented features in sales success and price adjustments of pacemaker and defibrillator products. St. Jude and Boston Scientific (the successor company of Guidant) subsequently entered into a settlement agreement in which the two companies agreed to cross-license the companies’ cardiac rhythm management patent portfolios.

Konami Corporation v. Roxor Games, Inc., Mad Catz, Inc., and Red Octane ERS Group evaluated patent damages related to technology for Dance Dance Revolution (“DDR”)-type dance games. Our ERS expert and staff analyzed competition and pricing regarding arcade products and software game and dance pad products.

Golden Bridge Technology, Inc. v. Nokia Inc. and Lucent Technologies, Inc. ERS Group prepared an expert report on behalf of co-defendant Nokia evaluating patent damages and critiquing plaintiff’s reasonable royalty analysis for a patent asserted to cover cell phone and base station acknowledgment methodologies.

Orion IP, LLC v. Toyota ERS Group provided an expert report on behalf of co-defendant Toyota Motor Sales critiquing the plaintiff’s damages assertions and assessing reasonable royalties for patented technologies associated with online sales methods and web-based parts management systems.

Synbiotics Corporation v. Agen Biomedical Limited ERS Group professionals studied the animal health care industry and provided testimony responding to plaintiff's lost profits and reasonable royalty patent damages claim regarding a patent related to canine heart worm diagnostic kits.

Peer to Peer Systems LLC v. Palm, Inc. ERS Group engaged in research and analysis relating to wireless game technologies and personal digital assistants (PDAs) and prepared an expert report rebutting plaintiff’s patent damages claims asserted against PalmOne and certain of its PDAs that might have been used in multiplayer wireless gaming.

Touchtunes Music Corp. v. Ecast, Inc. ERS Group prepared an expert report rebutting damages regarding patented technology asserted over Internet digital jukebox technology.

Wellstat Therapeutics Corp. (F/K/A Pro-Neuron, Inc.) v. The Regents of the University of California An ERS Group expert provided deposition testimony regarding damages suffered by the University of California related to breach of confidence and other claims. Our expert also rebutted plaintiff's claims of damages associated with alleged theft of trade secrets.

Canal+ (U.S.), Inc. and Canal+ D.A. v. Artisan Entertainment, Inc. and Artisan Pictures, Inc. ERS Group investigated DVD and VHS sales trends in the home video industry, including research into the introduction history of DVD equipment and DVD movie releases. An ERS Group economist prepared an expert report addressing the impact on product sales of a promotional program alleged to have violated copyrights and contractual agreements.

Pitts Carbonic & AG Services, Inc. v. Lion Raisins, Inc. ERS Group's analysis of economic factors led to an expert report and deposition testimony critiquing plaintiff's analysis of patent damages and addressing reasonable royalties for a method patent related to grape growing and raisin production.

Broadcom Corporation v. Intel Corporation An ERS Group economist provided expert reports and deposition testimony addressing patent damages and reasonable royalties relating both to Broadcom patents asserted against Intel chipset products and to Intel patents asserted against Broadcom gigabit networking products.

Meta Software v. Silvaco International ERS Group analyzed damages associated with counter-plaintiff’s claims of unfair business practices, interference, and defamation in a matter arising from plaintiff’s claims of trade secret theft of integrated circuit simulation software in the electronic design automation industry. ERS Group client Silvaco was awarded damages in excess of $20 million.

Soitec v. Silicon Genesis An ERS Group expert critiqued reasonable royalty claims in a patent infringement matter involving Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer fabrication technology. At trial, plaintiff claimed damages in excess of $40 million. Rejecting the opposing damages analysis, the jury instead awarded $3 million.

Intel v. Via Technologies ERS Group critiqued plaintiff’s analysis of patent damages and addressed reasonable royalties for three patents related to semiconductor technology and a personal computer graphics mechanism.

Rockwell International Corporation v. SDL, Inc. Rockwell sued SDL in 1995, alleging that SDL had violated a patent relating to the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process used in the manufacture of high-power semiconducter lasers. On behalf of defendant SDL, ERS Group Director Brett Reed prepared three reports and provided deposition testimony relating to Rockwell’s licensing history and the determination of reasonable royalties. Mr. Reed also critiqued Rockwell’s patent damages analysis. Our detailed analysis of Rockwell’s patent licensing program informed our evaluation of a royalty rate as well as the appropriate royalty base; it also included examination of alternative technologies These studies were used in our Georgia-Pacific analysis related to the lawsuit, which settled after the February 2001 acquisition of SDL by JDS Uniphase.

CyberMedia v. Symantec ERS Group's professional staff assisted ERS Group Special Consultant Alan Hess in the analysis of sales databases and other financial documents to calculate economic damages associated with the infringement of copyrighted software code. Professor Hess assessed damages using lost profits, reasonable royalty, and incremental revenue approaches.

Electro Scientific Industries v. General Scanning ERS Group assessed lost profits, price erosion, and reasonable royalty in a patent infringement matter involving semiconductor yield improvement systems. Our analysis led to expert testimony on behalf of the plaintiff at a jury trial, where ESI was awarded damages in excess of $13 million.

Angeion v. Cardiac Pacemakers ERS Group assessed reasonable royalty and patent infringement damages involving implantable defibrillator technology in the cardiac rhythm management industry.

Compaq Computer v. Packard Bell ERS Group provided economic analysis of various aspects of the personal computer industry, including price trends, importance of product features, and licensing rates and practices. Our analysis assessed lost profits, price erosion and reasonable royalty claims.

SRI International v. Advanced Technological Laboratories ERS Group analyzed appropriate royalty base, reasonable royalty and patent damages (including prejudgment interest) involving improved image technology in the ultrasound industry.