Willful infringement and enhanced damages Avoiding willful infringement is important because a court has the discretion to increase damages up to three times and award attorney’s fees if the patent is willfully infringed  Exculpatory opinions of counsel regarding non infringement of a patent reduce the likelihood that a defendant would be found liable for willfully [...]

No willful infringement found when Maersk’s sales contract included option to modify product based on litigation and did modify the product when it learned that a court ordered a competitor to modify a product to stop infringement. Maersk implemented the same changes. The clause in the sales contract and Maersk’s subsequent actions point to Maersk’s intention not to willfully infringe.