A recent decision from the Western District of Washington denying a motion for a preliminary injunction offers a cautionary tale to keep in mind when considering whether to engage in settlement negotiations with a competitor. BitTitan brought suit against SkyKick for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 8,938,510, a patent directed to the migration of email data from one email system to another. According to BitTitan, the ‘510 patent covered the essential elements of BitTitan’s email migration product and SkyKick was its main competitor in this industry. Although the court denied the preliminary injunction for a number of reasons, including BitTitan’s failure to establish that it would likely prevail on its infringement claim, its rationale for finding that BitTitan failed to show irreparable harm is worth noting. In concluding that BitTitan failed to present substantive evidence demonstrating that its potential loss could not be compensated by money damages,…
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