By Jim Utter
Director of Journalism
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion this week preserving a district court’s patent infringement verdict against Wash World Inc. but did trim the amount of damages awarded by the jury.
The case Belanger Inc. v. Wash World Inc. (No. 23-1841) dates to 2018 when Belanger sent Wash World a cease-and-desist letter alleging that its “Razor EDGE” car wash system infringed its patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,602,041, which related to automated car wash systems equipped with illuminated spray arms).
Wash World is a Wisconsin-based car wash equipment manufacturer while Belanger, founded in 1969, is a competitor based in Northville, Michigan.
Wash World responded by filing a declaratory judgment action seeking a finding of non-infringement. Belanger counterclaimed for infringement and sought damages.
After a four-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the jury found Wash World liable for infringing the ‘041 patent. It awarded Belanger $9.8 million in lost profits and $260,000 in reasonable royalties, and the district court entered judgment in Belanger’s favor.
Wash World moved for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, for a new trial or remittitur. The district court denied the motion, and Wash World appealed the finding and the lost profit damages.
In an opinion released March 24, a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found “no basis to reverse the district court’s judgment of infringement.”
However, the Court did strike $2,577,848 of the damages awarded for convoyed sales, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.
Convoyed sales are product sales that are made at the same time as sales of infringing products. For a sale of a non-infringing product to be considered a convoyed sale, the non-infringing product should be “functionally related” to the patented item.
The Court found that not to be the case in this instance.
“Taking the trial record in the light most favorable to Belanger, no reasonable juror could have found that the unpatented components of Belanger’s Razor EDGE system constitute a functional unit with the patented portions of the system,” Judge Leonard Stark wrote.
Thus, the Federal Circuit affirmed the finding of infringement but vacated the damages award in part. It remanded the case with instructions for the district court to reduce the damages by $2,577,848, resulting in a final award of $7,482,152 in favor of Belanger.
