Q: Could you explain the significance of the upcoming Supreme Court case WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp.?

Ronald E. Cahill: WesternGeco will address extraterritorial reach and a specific type of infringement under Sec. 271(f) of the patent statute, where components of an invention are made in the U.S., but sent outside the country to be combined in an infringing device. The key issue at stake is whether the full panoply of U.S. patent damages are available even where the infringing device is only made and sold outside the U.S. In this case, WesternGeco is seeking lost profit damages, i.e., the amount that they would have made in sales if the infringement didn’t occur. The case law allows for limited extraterritorial application of patents, but the critical question remains: how far do these protections extend? Certainty is important in a climate where the White House regularly issues statements about protecting U.S. intellectual property abroad.