KW Economics prepares intellectual property damages analysis for commercial contract dispute cases venued in Minnesota: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Minnesota damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
A commercial contract dispute becomes an intellectual property damages question when the contract is a license: a patent, trademark, software, or technology license whose royalties were underpaid, a licensee that kept selling after the license ended, or a dispute over the royalty base, the products covered, or the audit rights. The economist reads the license and its royalty provisions, rebuilds the royalty base from the licensee's sales records and any audit findings, and computes the shortfall by period under the contract's own terms. Where a licensee kept using the technology after termination, or an infringement claim is joined with the contract claim, the economist also measures the infringement damages, often a reasonable royalty informed by the license itself, and keeps the contract and infringement measures separate.
Economic analysis and expert testimony on damages in patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret cases and in license and royalty disputes, for the patentee or the accused infringer and for either side of every other claim. The work measures each remedy the governing statute allows: a reasonable royalty and the patentee's lost profits, including price erosion, apportioned to the patented feature; the defendant's profits, the owner's actual damages, and corrective advertising in a trademark case; actual damages and the infringer's profits in a copyright case, where the infringer carries the burden of its deductible expenses and of the profit owed to other factors; and actual loss, unjust enrichment, or a reasonable royalty for a misappropriated trade secret.
The size of the claim depends on the contract's remaining term, the profit margin the business would have realized, and how much of the lost volume was or could have been replaced. Incremental cost treatment is the usual battleground: whether a given cost would have been avoided when the revenue disappeared changes the margin and therefore the loss. For a new venture or a contract without a performance history, the reasonableness of the projected revenue is the central dispute, and the period over which lost profits are claimed is scrutinized against the contract's terms and the market.
Minnesota courts ask whether a method is generally accepted in the relevant professional community and whether it was reliably applied in the particular case, with the witness qualified by training and experience. The published methods of forensic economics meet the first question, so the examination of a damages report usually turns on its inputs and their support in the record.
Highest court: Minnesota Supreme Court. Court system: mncourts.gov.
Federal venues: District of Minnesota.
Minnesota reduces a negligence-based award by the plaintiff's share of fault and bars recovery once that share exceeds the defendant's. Preverdict interest runs from the commencement of the action or a written settlement demand, whichever is earlier, on most civil awards, so the report separates past from future amounts as of a fixed date. Economic damages are not subject to a general statutory limit, and any limit attached to a particular statutory claim is for counsel to confirm.
We issue the final report on the disclosure schedule and provide deposition and trial testimony, critique of the opposing damages analysis, and updated calculations as the court construes any patent claims and the record develops.
A commercial contract dispute becomes an intellectual property damages question when the contract is a license: a patent, trademark, software, or technology license whose royalties were underpaid, a licensee that kept selling after the license ended, or a dispute over the royalty base, the products covered, or the audit rights. The economist reads the license and its royalty provisions, rebuilds the royalty base from the licensee's sales records and any audit findings, and computes the shortfall by period under the contract's own terms. Where a licensee kept using the technology after termination, or an infringement claim is joined with the contract claim, the economist also measures the infringement damages, often a reasonable royalty informed by the license itself, and keeps the contract and infringement measures separate.
Minnesota courts ask whether a method is generally accepted in the relevant professional community and whether it was reliably applied in the particular case, with the witness qualified by training and experience. The published methods of forensic economics meet the first question, so the examination of a damages report usually turns on its inputs and their support in the record. Commercial Contract Dispute cases venued in Minnesota are heard in the District Court (General jurisdiction; 10 judicial districts; all civil, criminal, family, and probate matters), with final appeals to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the District of Minnesota.
Minnesota reduces a negligence-based award by the plaintiff's share of fault and bars recovery once that share exceeds the defendant's. Preverdict interest runs from the commencement of the action or a written settlement demand, whichever is earlier, on most civil awards, so the report separates past from future amounts as of a fixed date. Economic damages are not subject to a general statutory limit, and any limit attached to a particular statutory claim is for counsel to confirm. The report presents past and future amounts separately, states every rate and table with its source, and shows the result under the alternatives the other side is likely to argue, so counsel can apply the Minnesota rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on IP Damages or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.