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by ABCLAW 3053 days ago
No, Uber wasn't likely to settle for more, monetarily. The manner in which damages are fixed for trade secret and patent infringement make the total damages difficult to assess until the product goes to market. Google would be hard pressed to show actual loss, so Uber would likely be hit with some disgorgement stemming from unjust enrichment with some injunctive relief on the side.

What did they get? Unjust Enrichment sized damages and mutually agreed forbearance equivalent to injunctive relief.

And that's before we get into discussing how much of a minefield discovery was becoming in the case.

1 comments

There is nothing in this settlement equivalent to injunctive relief. An injunction was the worst-case scenario for Uber and they would never settle for something that amounts to their worst-case, otherwise why not just finish the trial?
1) The most common and most valuable injunctive relief in IP litigation is an injunction to have people stop using your special sauce. That's literally what they got in the settlement.

2) Because prior to the trial there would have been a flurry of discovery related motions, a large amount of time pulling engineers off their jobs to have them perform witness prep at both companies, then a large period of pre-trial legal prep, then the trial itself.

At all stages, information is leaking, and expenses are going up.

... And then the appeals start.

... Then the partial re-trials and appeals on those.