Texas Jury Returns Infringement Verdict in IV Case Against T-Mobile and Ericsson as Campaign Sees Setbacks in US and Europe

A jury in the Eastern District of Texas has returned a verdict of infringement in litigation brought by a subsidiary of Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) against T-Mobile and Ericsson. The jury found that the defendants both infringed at least one of the patents-in-suit, T-Mobile through its LTE network and Ericsson through related LTE telecommunications equipment, awarding damages of $34M as to the former and $9M for the latter. That verdict comes after a series of recent setbacks for IV in the same litigation campaign, including the Federal Circuit’s affirmance of a T-Mobile Alice win last month and the partial grant in September of an Alice challenge brought by T-Mobile and SoftBank (Sprint). The European leg of that campaign has also run into trouble, with a noninfringement verdict reportedly issued last year in litigation against Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, and Vodafone.