In a long running dispute between Kaneka Corporation and Uno & Company over flame retardant polyester fibers for artificial hair, the patent owner Kaneka won nearly $6 million in lost profits damages in June 2013, and received an accounting of damages through the entry of judgment in November 2013. In March of 2015, Kaneka also received a permanent injunction against Uno precluding the company and others from further infringement of the asserted patents.
In April 2016, the Federal Circuit affirmed Kaneka's judgment on appeal. The parties briefly litigated Kaneka's bill of costs, and the case then went dormant for 15 months. However, in November 2017, Kaneka obtained new evidence of infringement by Uno. Instead of filing a new infringement suit, Kaneka understandably tried what might have seemed like an efficient route to recovering post-judgment damages — namely, a notice of accounting for additional supplemental damages.
The district court shot down Kaneka's motion, construing it as an untimely motion to amend the final judgment entered way back in 2013 pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 60(b)(2), 59(e), and 52(b), each of which require such motions to be brought within a year or less of the entry of judgment. Accordingly, the Court held that to recover post-judgment damages, Kaneka must file a new suit against the defendants.
Kaneka may have avoided having to file a new suit by (1) asking for an ongoing royalty in the final judgment or (2) seeking to enforce the district court's post-trial injunction against the defendants. Option (1) may not have seemed appealing in this case because Kaneka obtained lost profits damages, but it's possible the parties could have negotiated a rate for any post-judgment sales. Option (2) is hard to evaluate in the case because the district court's injunction is under seal. The takeaway here is that to avoid the need to file a second lawsuit, prevailing patentees should carefully consider how they will measure and recover any post-judgment damages and consider addressing post-judgment damages in a stipulated final judgment at the district court.
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