The Supreme Court Redefines the Knowledge Element of Inducement

The Supreme Court issued its opinion in Global Tech Appliances v. SEB S.A., 10-6 on May 31, 2011. The Global Tech case redefines the standard for the intent element of inducement under 35 U.S. C. 271(b).

Relying primarily on the Court’s longstanding ruling in Aro Mfg. Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement, Co., 377 U.S. 476 (1964)(“Aro II”), which addressed the knowledge requirement for contributory infringement under 35 U.S.C. 271(c), an 8-1 majority held that “induced infringement under 271(b) requires knowledge that the induced acts constitute patent infringement.” Slip Opinion at 10. The Court rejected the Federal Circuit’s “deliberate indifference to a known risk” standard, but affirmed the lower court’s finding of inducement without proof of actual knowledge by the infringer “because the evidence in this case was plainly sufficient to support a finding of Pentalpha’s knowledge under the doctrine of willful blindness.” Id. (emphasis added). Thus, the Supreme Court articulated a knowledge requirement for inducement that can be satisfied with constructive knowledge under the “willful blindness” doctrine.


The Court held further held that willful blindness has

two basic requirements:

(1) the defendant must subjectively believe that there is a high probability that a fact exists and (2) the defendant must take deliberate actions to avoid learning of that fact.

Opinion at 13.

The Court found that Pentalpha, which inter alia, had substantially copied a competitor’s product, and then had its patent attorney conduct a freedom to operate search for this product without informing him that the design was copied from a competitor. From this, the Court concluded that the “evidence was more than sufficient for a jury to find that Pentalpha subjectively believed there was a high probability the SEB’s fryer was patented, that Pentalpha took deliberate steps to avoid knowing that fact, and that it therefore willfully blinded itself to the infringing nature of Sunbeam’s sales.”

Justice Kennedy, the lone dissent, agreed that inducement has a knowledge component, but disagreed that “willful blindness” was an appropriate substitute for actual knowledge.

With the Supreme Court offering a degree of clarity that inducement requires knowledge that the “induced acts constitute patent infringement,” (which is consistent with Federal Circuit precedent since DSU) proving inducement in the course of patent litigation will often prove to be a challenge for patent owners. Moreover, a factually well founded and competent opinion of counsel indicating that the induced acts do not constitute infringement of a valid patent should provide a strong defense to allegations of inducement.