‘가득 차면 기울고 넘친다’는 미국의 특허 손해배상 법리 - Grain Processing Corp. v. American Maize-Products Co. 사건판결에서 얻는 교훈 -

The patent damages of USA has been increasing since the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit(CAFC) established and Reagan Government's pro-patent policy was admitted in 1980s. CAFC calculated the damages based on Section 284 of US Patent Act, which taken the full compensation for granted for the patent holder. In reality the critical views have mentioned that the damages for the infringement must have been highly excessive award than the monetary evaluation of the patentee invention. The highly excessive patent damages has depended on the ‘but-for Rule’ for the causation between the infringement and the damage. Grain Processing Corp. case adopted a newly contrived causation rather than the existing but-for Rule in end of 1990s for the purpose of the limitation of damages. To grasp this problem solving against the patent damages, the analysis of the legal theories on Panduit Test(1978) and market-share Rule(1989) was fundamental and substantial. This paper examined the legal theories and practice on the patent damages of USA, and described the related issues of ROK with a comparative method.