Judge Alsup Upholds Noninfringement Verdict for Juniper from Finjan “Shootout” Trial

District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California has denied a post-trial motion by Finjan, Inc., rejecting its attempt to overturn a December noninfringement verdict for Juniper Networks and denying its request for a new trial (3:17-cv-05659). In that verdict, the jury found that Juniper had not infringed a single claim from a Finjan anti-malware patent after struggling with the application of a key claim term; in a March 11 order, Judge Alsup held that the jury had not erred by reaching that verdict. The denial of Finjan’s post-trial motions is just the latest of multiple setbacks for the NPE in this lawsuit, following significant difficulties with its damages case—including Judge Alsup’s holding that Finjan had overinflated its asserted royalty base and his decision to exclude the entire testimony of its damages expert. The single-claim December trial stemmed from the case’s first “patent shootout”, an unorthodox procedure designed by Judge Alsup to more efficiently get to the merits of a patent case by forcing the parties to litigate their best arguments first.