Intellectual property (IP) disputes often involve determining damages for alleged infringement, typically by assessing a hypothetical royalty that the parties might have agreed upon before the infringement.
In this article titled “Smallest saleable patent-practicing unit in life sciences disputes,” author Erin McDermott examines methods for calculating damages in IP disputes, focusing on “reasonable royalties” for patent infringement. The article highlights the challenge of identifying an appropriate “royalty base” in cases involving multicomponent products, often limiting this base to the smallest saleable patent-practicing unit (SSPPU). While SSPPU is common in tech disputes, McDermott notes its growing relevance in life sciences as combination products become more prevalent and suggests that SSPPU-based royalty calculations may increasingly apply in IP cases.
