Forest Group v. Bon Tool on remand

In Forest Group, Inc. v. Bon Tool Co. [DOC], 590 F.3d 1295 (Fed. Cir. 2009), the Federal Circuit, on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, held that a false marking fine of not more than $500 should be assessed for each article marked falsely.

On remand, the Southern District ordered [PDF] on Tuesday that Forest Group shall be fined $180 for each falsely-marked article, for a total fine (based on evidence at trial of 38 sales of falsely-marked articles) of $6,840.00. This is not much in absolute dollars. Notably, however, this represents the upper limit of the sale price for each of the articles, meaning that Forest made no money at all on any of the sales of a falsely-marked product (and, indeed, could have lost money on some sales, since the evidence showed there were sales at prices as low as $103).

The court noted that such a fine (amounting to the total sales price of the false-marked articles) “fulfill[s] the deterrent goal of [35 U.S.C. Sec. 292’s] fine provision.”

Indeed it does.