Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in Wash World Inc. v. Belanger Inc., No. 2023-1841 (Mar. 24, 2025).
Belanger manufactures car washes and owns U.S. Patent No. 8,602,041 for a spray car wash system. Wash World, another car wash system manufacturer, sought a declaratory judgment that its “Razor EDGE” car wash system did not infringe the ’041 Patent. Belanger counterclaimed for infringement.
During claim construction, the district court sided with Belanger and held that two claim terms—“outer cushioning sleeve” and “predefined wash area”—did not require construction. The case proceeded to a jury trial, where Belanger’s damages expert presented a convoyed sales lost profits theory. The jury returned a verdict that Wash World’s Razor EDGE car wash system infringed several claims of the ’041 Patent and awarded Belanger, inter alia, lost profit damages of $9.8 million, which included $2.6 million in lost profits for auxiliary products. Wash World moved for judgment of a matter of law of noninfringement and, alternatively, for a new trial or remittitur of the damages award. The district court denied the motions and Wash World appealed.
The Federal Circuit affirmed-in-part, reversed-in-part, and vacated-in-part. On Wash World’s challenge to the district court’s claim construction ruling, the Court held the alternative constructions Wash World advanced on appeal, which differed from those presented to the district court, were forfeited. The Court explained that while “a party is not always confined to the precise wording of the constructions it advanced below,” and may present “new or additional arguments” in support of the scope of its claim constructions, such arguments must still “incorporate an understanding of the parties’ dispute that has developed through the course of litigation.” Here, Wash World’s arguments on appeal were too far removed from its district court arguments. Accordingly, the Court affirmed on infringement. The Court agreed with Wash World, however, that the district court abused its discretion by entering judgment on the jury’s damages award. Specifically, the Court held that the district court should not have allowed the $2.6 million the jury awarded in connection with auxiliary products. Notably, even though Belanger chose to bundle certain components in its car wash “packages,” these additional components bore no functional relationship to the patented system, which is required to support convoyed sales damages. Accordingly, the Court vacated and remanded the damages judgment with instruction to remit the $2.6 million.
