This summer, an Eastern District of Texas jury returned an $847M verdict in favor of General Access Solutions, Ltd. (f/k/a Access Solutions, Ltd.) (GAS). Despite “great respect for a jury’s considered verdict”, Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap, last week, concluded “that the jury’s verdict is against the great weight of the evidence to such a material degree that a new trial is necessary”. The court did so in ruling on a motion filed by Verizon (Verizon Wireless and multiple other subsidiaries) for a new trial, also pointing to multiple arguments that the defendants made in their parallel motion for judgment as a matter of law. Jury selection is now set for December 6, 2024.

An Eastern District of Texas jury has returned a verdict in favor of General Access Solutions, Ltd. (f/k/a Access Solutions, Ltd.) (GAS), awarding $583M in damages for the infringement of a first patent-in-suit; $264M, for infringement of a second. Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap presided over last week’s trial, in a case that GAS filed against Verizon (Verizon Wireless) back in October 2022, a couple of months after GAS apparently secured, according to public records, the backing of an unnamed litigation funder. Ericsson intervened in the suit, as the supplier of some of the accused equipment.

General Access Solutions, Ltd. (f/k/a Access Solutions, Ltd.) has followed its October 2022 case against Verizon (Verizon Wireless) with a suit against Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) (2:23-cv-00158), both in the Eastern District of Texas. The plaintiff again targets the provision of its 4G and 5G base station equipment, this time with three patents, only one of which is in suit against Verizon Wireless. In that case, Ericsson has intervened to defend against the portion of the plaintiff’s complaint that concerns equipment that it provides. General Access makes similar allegations in its new complaint, also pleading that T-Mobile became aware of at least one of the patents-in-suit through the April 2020 merger with Sprint, a prior campaign defendant.

General Access Solutions, Ltd. (GAS) has sued Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (2:22-cv-00394) over the provision of 5G base station equipment and devices that can use a cellular signal to provide local Wi-Fi access, the latter including Wi-Fi routers with cellular backhaul, mobile hotspot devices, and smartphones with mobile hotspot features (such as devices from Apple and Samsung). Two patents are asserted in the Eastern District of Texas complaint, one previously seen in this campaign and one new to litigation.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.

General Access Solutions, Ltd. (GAS) has turned a suit from earlier this year, against SOFTBANK (Boost Mobile, Sprint, Virgin Mobile) (2:16-cv-00465), into a campaign with new complaints filed against LG Electronics (2:16-cv-01349), Novatel (2:16-cv-01350), Pantech (2:16-cv-01348), and Xiaomi (2:16-cv-01351). The NPE has asserted a patent, generally related to a wireless communications system, not previously seen in litigation. GAS has identified as accused products the defendants’ smartphones and tablets providing mobile hotspot functionality. These new complaints mark a shift in focus for the NPE.