Showing 1 - 10 of 40 news articles
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Intel Wins Noninfringement Verdict in Second VLSI Trial, Sidestepping $3B Damages Ask
COVID-19, Patent Litigation Feature
The second West Texas trial between VLSI Technology LLC and Intel has ended in a verdict of noninfringement for the chipmaker, capping off a closely watched proceeding before District Judge Alan D. Albright in which the plaintiff—a Fortress Investment Group LLC subsidiary—had sought damages totaling over $3B. That April 21 verdict comes just under two months after a second jury reached the opposite conclusion for another set of patents in a second case between the same parties, finding infringement and awarding $2B in damages.
April 23, 2021
West Texas Jury Clears Roku of Infringement in $228M ESW Holdings Litigation
COVID-19, In Case You Missed It
A jury in the Western District of Texas recently issued a noninfringement verdict for Roku in litigation brought by ESW Holdings (6:19-cv-00044) in which the plaintiff had sought as much as $228M in damages. On April 9, the jury found that Roku had not infringed two patents through the provision of software used for the development of streaming media “channels” for its media platform, capping off District Judge Alan D. Albright’s third patent jury trial since he took the bench in late 2018. The verdict for Roku marks the second time that a jury has cleared it of liability before Judge Albright, and comes amidst a trend of large damage awards issued in other notable patent trials in recent months.
April 16, 2021
Judge Albright Moves Second VLSI Case Back to Waco as Federal Circuit Prompts New Approach to Transfer Timing
COVID-19, Patent Litigation Feature
Weeks after a Western District of Texas jury returned a $2.2B verdict for Fortress Investment Group LLC subsidiary VLSI Technology LLC against Intel, District Judge Alan D. Albright has transferred a second case between those two parties (6:19-cv-00255) from Austin back to his home division of Waco. Judge Albright’s March 28 decision to transfer that second case on convenience grounds closely mirrors his rationale for doing so in the first action as well and came after the Federal Circuit rejected his attempt to move that earlier trial but not the entire proceeding. Meanwhile, another disagreement with the Federal Circuit appears to have prompted Judge Albright to reassess the timing of his transfer decisions: after the appellate court issued a series of rulings faulting him for delaying transfer rulings despite proceeding with claim construction, he has now announced that he will rule on interdistrict transfer motions before holding a Markman hearing.
April 2, 2021
Five Finjan Patents Invalidated as Indefinite Despite “Convenient” Testimony from Plaintiff’s Expert
COVID-19, Patent Litigation Feature
Finjan Holdings, Inc. has seen a new setback in its Southern District of California lawsuit against ESET (3:17-cv-00183), roughly a year after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic ended a trial in the case three days in. On March 23, District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo invalidated five of the six anti-malware patents-in-suit, ruling that “convenient” yet unsupported testimony from the plaintiff’s expert on the meaning of the term “downloadable” failed to overcome the defendant’s argument that the patents’ claims are indefinite. That ruling follows another notable decision against Finjan in January, when Northern District of California Judge William Alsup largely granted Juniper Networks’s request for attorney fees due to the NPE’s litigation conduct in a case that he deemed a “fiasco”.
March 26, 2021
Quarterhill Reports a “Strong” 2020 Amid the COVID Recession, Including Several Settlements and Multiple Large Portfolio Acquisitions
COVID-19, Patent Market, Patent Watch
Quarterhill Inc. released its Q4 and 2020 financial results this week, reporting decreased year-over-year patent licensing revenue but several new license agreements as well as multiple acquisitions of large operating company portfolios. The company’s slower fourth quarter followed a surge in licensing revenue in Q3, which management characterized at the time as Quarterhill’s “best quarter” in three years.
March 12, 2021
Texas Jury Returns $62.7M Infringement Verdict in Solas OLED Trial Against Samsung
COVID-19, Patent Litigation Feature, TPLF
Since last July, RPX has highlighted a growing web of Irish NPEs linked to Magnetar Capital—a hedge fund with $12.3B in assets under management—that have acquired and increasingly asserted former operating company patents. One of those NPEs has just taken a case to trial: on March 8, an Eastern District of Texas jury returned a partial infringement verdict for plaintiff Solas OLED Limited, finding that Samsung infringed two display patents through the provision of certain smartphones. Solas OLED was awarded a combined $62.7M in damages. However, the jury also concluded that the asserted claims from a third patent are invalid. The patent trial appears to be the first before District Judge Rodney Gilstrap since the expiration of his November order halting all such trials due to COVID-19.
March 11, 2021
Judge Albright’s Second Patent Trial Ends in $2.2B Verdict for Fortress’s VLSI Technology
COVID-19, Patent Litigation Feature, TPLF
On March 2, a Western District of Texas jury returned an infringement verdict in litigation between Fortress Investment Group LLC subsidiary VLSI Technology LLC and Intel (6:21-cv-00057). The jury found that Intel infringed two semiconductor patents through the provision of certain processors, awarding a combined $2.2B in damages but also determining that the company’s infringement had not been willful. The in-person trial had previously been delayed several times as a result of COVID-19, with District Judge Alan D. Albright opting to move the trial to another division in order to work around a pandemic-related courthouse closure—a decision that resulted in two trips to the Federal Circuit.
March 5, 2021
COVID-19 Concerns Animate Motions Ahead of March Trial in East Texas Between Maxell and Apple
COVID-19, Patent Litigation Feature
Maxell has filed another lawsuit against Apple (6:21-cv-00158) in the Western District of Texas over its “‘smartphone’ patent portfolio”. In the new complaint, Maxell asserts 12 patents, nine of them litigated for the first time, bringing the total at issue in this campaign, which began back in November 2016, to more than five dozen. An Eastern District of Texas trial in a prior Maxell suit is also scheduled to begin on March 22, with each party filing an opposed motion—one concerning trial timing; the other, the fate of patents not selected for trial—both citing, at least in part, the current COVID-19 pandemic, a circumstance that Maxell concedes is “anything but normal”.
February 21, 2021
Nation’s First Remote Patent Jury Trial Ends in $4M Infringement Verdict
COVID-19, In Case You Missed It
On January 25, the Western District of Washington broke new ground with the first patent jury trial to be held virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. That case has now reached a verdict, with a jury issuing an infringement finding against Valve over the provision of its Steam Controller gaming peripheral and awarding $4M in damages to plaintiff Ironburg Inventions Limited. The conclusion of this closely watched trial marks the latest step in the Western District’s ongoing efforts to develop and refine remote trial procedures based on feedback from litigants and other stakeholders. However, as recently reported by RPX, those efforts run counter to the approach taken by Eastern District of Texas Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who has vigorously opposed virtual trials on due process grounds.
February 5, 2021
What 15 Years of US Patent Litigation Data Reveal About the IP Market
COVID-19, Top Insight, TPLF
Patent litigation trends have been volatile over the last 15 years, often responding to legislative, administrative, and judicial changes. A disaggregation of this data reveals meaningful differences among plaintiff types and may provide valuable insight into the IP market today—and tomorrow.
January 25, 2021