Avery Dennison hit with $62m patent infringement verdict
Multinational manufacturer Avery Dennison will have to pay more than $62 million to a rival company for infringing a patent, which includes $20 million in sanctions.
US federal judge Mustafa Kasubhai handed down the decision at the US District Court at the District of Oregon, Eugene Division on October 14.
The award comes after tech company ADASA obtained a unanimous jury verdict against Avery Dennison for the infringement of US patent number 9,798,967, which was not due to expire until 2026.
The patent covers systems for encoded and commissioned wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) devices. The memory bank of an RFID tag is encoded with an electronic product code, which is an identifier for an item in the supply chain to uniquely identify that particular item.
The ‘967 patent teaches an RFID transponder or inlay with an RFID integrated circuit chip having an encoded memory structure that ensures uniqueness within the serial number portion, according to ADASA.
The tech company held that Avery Dennison infringed the ‘967 patent, either “literally or under the doctrine of equivalents”, because it makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, and/or imports encoded RFID tags and labels that use the unique encoded structure identified in the claims of the disputed patent.
In May, a jury sided with ADASA and awarded $26,641,877 in damages, but on Thursday, Judge Kasubhai more than doubled this award.
In his summation, Judge Kasubhai wrote: “The court finds conduct of the defendant to have been sanctionable, finds that the appropriate sanction is $0.0025 per tag for the total number of tags included in the merits judgment above, and thus it is ordered and adjudged that the defendant shall pay sanctions in the amount of $20,032,889.80. The sum of the above lines is $62,407,801.50.”
According to the complaint filed by ADASA back in 2017, the company founder Clarke McAllister was listed as the inventor on 18 patents covering RFID tech..
At the time of the jury verdict, lead counsel for ADASA, Jonathan Suder issued a statement, commenting: “Clarke McAllister is a true inventor. He trusted the patent system and it has been a long and difficult road to receive the recognition for his contribution to RFID. Our constitution is designed to promote and protect inventors and their inventions. “
Suder held that Clarke tried to meet with representatives of Avery Dennison in 2013 but they were dismissive of him and his invention and told him to leave their customers alone. “As Clarke found ever-increasing use of his invention by others, he had no choice but to file this lawsuit. This verdict, from the District of Oregon, shows that all inventors must be respected, no matter how big or small they are,” he said.
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