Inducement of infringement and willful blindness

[Lawrence Rosen <lr...@rosenlaw.com>]

Some have suggested that it is better not to know. They also forget that it
is hard to keep secrets, particularly in a non-profit open source
foundation. /Larry

 

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http://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/cafc/14-1167/14-1167-2015-0
4-24.pdf?ts=1429887716:

 


Info-Hold, Inc. v. Muzak, LLC, No. 14-1167 (Fed. Cir. 2015)


To prove inducement of infringement, the patentee must "show that the
accused inducer took an affirmative act to encourage infringement with the
knowledge that the induced acts constitute patent infringement." Microsoft
Corp. v. DataTern, Inc., 755 F.3d 899, 904 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (citing
Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 131 S. Ct. 2060, 2068 (2011)). The
inducement knowledge requirement may be satisfied by a showing of actual
knowledge or willful blindness. Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 720
F.3d 1361, 1366 (Fed. Cir. 2013), cert. granted on other grounds, 135 S. Ct.
752 (2014). Willful blindness is a high standard, requiring that the alleged
inducer (1) subjectively believe that there is a high probability that a
fact exists and (2) take deliberate actions to avoid learning of that fact.
Global-Tech, 131 S. Ct. at 2070.