KW Economics prepares intellectual property damages analysis for partnership and shareholder dispute cases venued in Missouri: what the loss claim consists of, the records that drive it, and a present value built to Missouri damages rules and venues. Plaintiff and defense.
In an owner dispute the intellectual property question is usually who took what: a departing partner, member, or shareholder who used the company's trade secrets, customer information, or technology in a competing venture, or a controlling owner who moved the company's patents, marks, or software into an entity the owner holds separately. The economist measures the company's actual loss from the diverted sales and customers, the competing venture's profits attributable to the information, and, where those are hard to isolate, a reasonable royalty for the use, net of any overlap, and coordinates the measure with any valuation of an owner's interest, so the same lost earnings are not counted both as damages and as a reduction in the value of the interest.
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 valuation date and the standard of value control the result: a fair value standard may exclude the minority and marketability discounts that a fair market value standard applies, and the gap between the two can be substantial for a minority interest in a closely held company. Normalizing adjustments to owner compensation and related-party dealings often decide whether the business shows earnings to value at all. Where the claim includes diverted profits, the amount depends on how far back the records permit reconstruction and on whether the business's actual results can be separated from market conditions.
Missouri courts screen expert testimony for reliability: the judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the opinion rests on sufficient facts and reliable principles and methods, and whether those methods were reliably applied to the case. A damages report meets that inquiry by stating its assumptions and naming the source of every rate and table.
Highest court: Missouri Supreme Court. Court system: courts.mo.gov.
Federal venues: Eastern District of Missouri, Western District of Missouri.
Missouri applies pure comparative fault in a negligence-based claim, reducing the award in proportion to the plaintiff's share. Interest on a liquidated contract sum runs from the date of demand, while prejudgment interest in tort turns on a written settlement offer that the judgment then exceeds. Economic damages are not subject to a general statutory limit outside specific statutory claims, so the report states each loss as of a fixed date and separates the sums that were due from the amounts that had to be projected.
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.
In an owner dispute the intellectual property question is usually who took what: a departing partner, member, or shareholder who used the company's trade secrets, customer information, or technology in a competing venture, or a controlling owner who moved the company's patents, marks, or software into an entity the owner holds separately. The economist measures the company's actual loss from the diverted sales and customers, the competing venture's profits attributable to the information, and, where those are hard to isolate, a reasonable royalty for the use, net of any overlap, and coordinates the measure with any valuation of an owner's interest, so the same lost earnings are not counted both as damages and as a reduction in the value of the interest.
Missouri courts screen expert testimony for reliability: the judge asks whether the economist is qualified, whether the opinion rests on sufficient facts and reliable principles and methods, and whether those methods were reliably applied to the case. A damages report meets that inquiry by stating its assumptions and naming the source of every rate and table. Partnership and Shareholder Dispute cases venued in Missouri are heard in the Circuit Court (General jurisdiction; 46 judicial circuits; all civil, criminal, domestic, and probate matters), with final appeals to the Missouri Supreme Court. Matters within federal jurisdiction proceed in the Eastern District of Missouri and Western District of Missouri.
Missouri applies pure comparative fault in a negligence-based claim, reducing the award in proportion to the plaintiff's share. Interest on a liquidated contract sum runs from the date of demand, while prejudgment interest in tort turns on a written settlement offer that the judgment then exceeds. Economic damages are not subject to a general statutory limit outside specific statutory claims, so the report states each loss as of a fixed date and separates the sums that were due from the amounts that had to be projected. 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 Missouri rules to a documented figure.
Request a consultation on IP Damages or call (201) 343-0700. Plaintiff and defense counsel.