Oil-Dri Corporation of America v. Nestlé Purina PetCare Company

Analysis Group was retained by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP on behalf of its client Nestlé Purina PetCare Company in this patent infringement lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Nestlé Purina also was represented by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.  The plaintiff, Oil-Dri Corporation of America, had filed suit against Nestlé Purina for alleged infringement of a patent related to the composition of Nestlé Purina’s Tidy Cats clumping cat litter product.  Oil-Dri sought claimed royalty damages totaling $73 million through the expiration of the patent.

An Analysis Group team, led by Senior Advisor Keith R. Ugone and Vice Presidents Joshua Levine and Thomas P. McGahee, conducted an independent evaluation of Oil-Dri’s claimed damages and prepared a rebuttal report. Dr. Ugone testified in deposition and at trial that Oil-Dri’s claimed damages were significantly overstated in light of real-world considerations that would have been important at a hypothetical negotiation between Oil-Dri and Nestlé Purina for a license to the patent-in-suit. Dr. Ugone opined that a reasonable royalty for a license to Oil-Dri’s patent would have been structured as a lump-sum payment no more than in the range of $3 million to $8 million.

At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found the patent-in-suit to be valid and infringed by Nestlé Purina. However, the jury awarded Oil-Dri $3 million rather than the requested $73 million.