Swan Magnetics v. Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd.

Swan Magnetics sued Mitsumi Electric, alleging that the latter had failed to comply with an agreement to jointly develop ultra-high-capacity disk drives for computers. Swan sought billions of dollars in damages. Analysis Group academic affiliate Professor Robert Hall of Stanford University maintained that many steps are entailed in achieving success both pre- and post-commercialization, and that there was no evidence that the joint venture could have met its development milestones or growth objectives. He argued that the damages report of the opposing expert was based on highly speculative sales projections and was thus an inappropriate basis for calculating damages. The judge agreed with Mitsumi and Professor Hall and ruled that lost sales and profits were too speculative.