Laitram Corp. v. Hewlett-Packard Co.
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
791 F. Supp. 113, 22 U.S.P.Q.2d 1597 (1992)
- Written by Sara Adams, JD
Facts
Laitram Corporation (plaintiff) owned several patents related to calculators. Laitram sued Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) (defendant) in federal court for making and selling calculators that infringed on Latraim’s patented calculator technologies. The lawsuit involved several complex issues related to findings of liability, including infringement, invalidity, and patent enforcement. The procedure for determining recovery of the royalty damages sought by Laitram was similarly complicated, involving the analysis of 15 unique factors and difficult computations related to finances and accounting. HP moved for separate trials, seeking one proceeding on liability issues and another proceeding with a different jury on damages and willful infringement because willful infringement is only relevant to damage calculations. HP also requested two separate phases of discovery, with a first phase limited to liability-related discovery and, if HP were found liable, a second phase permitting discovery of evidence related to damages and willful infringement.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Feldman, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.