Electronic circuit connector manufacturers FCI USA Inc. and FCI Americas Technology Inc. brought suit against Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. of Taiwan and its wholly-owned US subsidiary Foxconn Electronics Inc. for willfully inducing others to infringe the claims of two of its patents. Hon Hai manufactured ball grid array (BGA) sockets that are used to attach integrated circuits, such as Pentium microprocessors, to motherboards. The patents at issue in the trial had already been found valid and infringed on summary judgment. At issue in the trial was whether the defendants willfully induced others to infringe and the resulting damages to FCI.

Counsel for FCI retained NERA Senior Vice President Dr. Alan Cox to undertake an economic analysis of the appropriate damage calculation for lost profits. Dr. Cox investigated the nature and role of the patents, the markets in which the two companies compete, industry licensing practices, and other factors to determine an appropriate reasonable royalty for infringement of the two patents. Dr. Cox also calculated the size of the royalty base from calculations of total sales of Hon Hai's product into the US. He calculated substantial indirect sales of infringing products into the US. Dr. Cox presented and defended a damages report at trial.

Following an eight-day trial, the jury unanimously found that Hon Hai/Foxconn had willfully induced others to infringe FCI's patents. FCI was awarded $7.98 million, of which $1.1 million was for direct infringement and the balance for inducement to infringe. This case was noted as the “Verdict of the Week” by VerdictSearch in its 15 March 2004 edition.