Here I sit, patiently waiting for the phone call to argue this one in the Supreme Court. Kannon Shanmugam? Paul Clement? Nah, call me.
You have a patent in the U.S. over let's say a drill bit. You license it to me. I negligently give it to a third party, overseas, who uses a part of it to build a drilling rig in oh, I don't know, the South China Sea. You sue me for patent infringement. How much am I liable for, and how much is the real infringer liable for? What's the extraterritorial effect of patent remedies? Does it matter if the use in the South China Sea by the real infringer wasn't infringing the patent law of that country?
These are reasonably complicated issues, with an uncertain outcome. I won't hazard a prediction. The argument is available here: