Energy & Sustainability IP Updates — November 2022
In U.S. patent litigation news, we reported last month that Judge Young of the District of Massachusetts issued a permanent injunction barring General Electric Co. from selling Haliade-X wind turbines that a jury found infringed a Siemens patent. In the same case, GE most recently submitted a response in October to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy's bid for a judgment as a matter of law, arguing for a new trial because the jury made an "irreconcilably inconsistent" finding regarding GE's technology that infringes a Siemens patent for offshore wind turbines. According to GE, the jury contradicted itself by finding different types of infringement for different claims within the patent. That trial occurred earlier this year in June, during which a 10-member Massachusetts jury returned a verdict after a 14-day trial finding that GE infringed Siemens' patent. While the jury found that GE’s infringement was not willful and that Siemens was not entitled to damages for lost profits, the jury did award Siemens a running reasonable royalty rate of $30,000 per megawatt.