Salazar v. HTC Corporation

Named inventor Joe Andrew Salazar has filed suit again in the Eastern District of Texas over the same patent that a jury there found, in a May 2018 verdict, not infringed by HTC through the provision of the HTC One M7, One M8, and One M9 smartphones. The new complaint names AT&T (AT&T Mobility), SoftBank (Sprint), T-Mobile, and Verizon (Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless) (5:19-cv-00075), accusing the wireless carriers of infringement through the provision of “smartphone products including but not limited to HTC One M7, HTC One M8, and HTC One M9 that embody wireless communications, control and sensing systems for communicating with external devices, including televisions and other devices”. Salazar alleges in that complaint infringement “at least claim 1” of the sole asserted patent; final judgment of noninfringement, based on the earlier jury verdict, was entered as to claims 1-7, 27-30, and 34.

Inventor Joe Andrew Salazar has filed suit against HTC (2:16-cv-01096), accusing the company of infringing a single patent (5,802,467) related to a type of universal programmable remote functionality with a user interface that presents a menu to the user. Accused of infringement are the company’s smartphones, including the One M7 and One M8. Salazar’s complaint lists the specific claims allegedly infringed by the accused devices, but provides no details regarding the specific features at issue. The plaintiff does not appear to have filed any patent litigation prior to this lawsuit.