I was alerted to the publication of Lex Machina’s Damage Award Litigation Report 2025 by an articlein Law360 earlier this week, and have now had a chance to review the report myself. (Readers who want a copy should contact Lex Machina.) “The report primarily compares data spanning the ten-year period from the beginning of 2015 through the end of 2024,” and “focuses on the more than 73,000 federal cases with damage awards in that ten-year span,” including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and antitrust cases, along with several other subject matter areas including products liability. For present purposes, I thought I would simply highlight a few things relevant to patent damages awards over the past few years. Most notably, the number of cases awarding patent damages from 2020-24 was 738 (compared with 305 during 2015-19), and the total amount awarded has risen from $3,822,980,219 to $12,667,647,608. (These amounts are not adjusted for inflation, but clearly outstrip the rate of inflation over that period of time. I understand that $1 in 2015 would be worth about $1.36 today, and $1 in 2019 would be worth about $1.26.) The average patent damages award for 2020-24 has increased 200% (to $35,784,315), and the median by 84% (to $1,861,033), compared with 2015-19. Not surprisingly, average and median jury awards are higher than average and median judge awards, though presumably much of this is attributable to selection effects. For 2024, the average and median amounts for jury awards in patent cases are $83,693,841 and $24,200,000, compared to $1,254,568, and $603,965 for judge awards. Average trade secret awards from 2020-24 also have increased compared to 2015-19 (by 105%), while average copyright and trademark awards have decreased (by 48% and 39%, respectively)--though the median trade secret award has increased by only 19%, and the median for copyright and trademark has decreased by 6% and 9%, respectively. And, as noted above, these numbers are not adjusted for inflation.
Do the more recent damage awards include money for post judgment infringements?
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