The Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal published this article written by Anthony Trenton, Trevor Cook, Justin Watts and Vanessa Wettner in its April 2019 issue. The article looks, in particular, at major European venues that have been asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction to varying degrees over the years, concluding that extraterritorial extension is already a feature of international patent litigation. It goes on to indicate that the opening of the Unified Patent Court will be a major shift as asserting extraterritorial jurisdiction will be its reason for being.

Excerpt: US patents have some extraterritorial effect. A party can be liable for patent infringement if it supplies components of a patented invention to a foreign country to be assembled there. In WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp., the US Supreme Court recently ruled, by a 7-2 majority, that damages can be recovered for lost profits in respect of foreign sales resulting from such supply.