By John Paul and D. Brian Kacedon

Subsidiary Has Standing to Join Lawsuit as Implied Exclusive Licensee, But Parent Cannot Recover Lost Profits of Subsidiary from Patent Infringer
In Mars, Inc. et al. v. TruRX LLC et al., even in the absence of a written patent license agreement, a parent company successfully showed that its subsidiary had an implied exclusive license and therefore had standing to join the parent company as a co-plaintiff in a patent infringement case. According to the decision by a magistrate judge, if a subsidiary company has the right to practice the invention and an express or implied promise that all others will be excluded from practicing the invention, it has standing as a co-plaintiff. The magistrate judge also held, however, that the parent company could not recover the subsidiary’s lost profits from the infringer.