Salazar v. AT&T Mobility LLC et al DC

An Eastern District of Texas jury has returned a verdict for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, finding that the four wireless carriers did not infringe a single universal remote patent through the provision of certain HTC smartphones. The verdict marks the second time that a jury has found the same devices did not infringe that same patent, following another trial in an earlier lawsuit filed against HTC directly by the patent’s named inventor, Joe Andrew Salazar.

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.