
The Federal Circuit has long held that “the general rule” of patent infringement damages law is “a patentee may not claim, as its own damages, the lost profits of a related company.” More than 15 years ago, one patent owner argued that an exception to this general rule should be when a subsidiary’s profits “flow inexorably” to the parent patent owner. In that case, the Federal Circuit avoided deciding the legal question, concluding that the patent owner had failed to prove that its wholly owner subsidiary’s profits flowed inexorably to it. The same legal question came before the Federal Circuit again in Roland Corp. v. inMusic Brands, Inc. and the result was, well, the same: no dice.