CalAmp Hit with Treble Damages for Willful Infringement of a Patent Assertion Entity’s Portfolio of Auto Tracking Patents

Written by Mark Speegle and Sean Murray
Edited by John Sganga, Joe Cianfrani, and Boris Zelkind

In a final judgment dated July 19, 2017, a Florida federal court awarded treble damages to Omega Patents, a non-practicing patent licensing entity, for the infringement of five patents directed to vehicle control systems and trackers.  The court also awarded over $1 million in costs and attorneys’ fees, as well as interest and supplemental damages for later sales, for a total judgement of over $15 million.

CalAmp manufactures electronic devices for monitoring motor vehicles, such as those employed by insurance companies to provide usage-based insurance rates to consumers.  A jury in February 2016 found that CalAmp had willfully infringed Omega’s patents and awarded Omega $2,975,200.  The district court trebled this award – the maximum enhancement allowed by the patent statute – in part because CalAmp had known about Omega’s patents and infringement allegations well before it launched the accused products.  The court also faulted CalAmp for dubious testimony by its president that directly contradicted the testimony of a CalAmp engineer and CalAmp’s responses to formal interrogatories earlier in the litigation.