MARSHALL – A Dallas-area company seeking more than $35 million in damages in a patent infringement trial against Nokia is overreaching, Nokia lawyers told jurors Friday.
Correct Transmission, which offices in Allen, rested its case Friday after its damages expert, Stephen Dell of NOVUM Consulting Group, testified that Nokia owes $35 million for its alleged infringement of three patents covering technology used in routers.
But during his cross-examination of Dell, Deron Dacus of The Dacus Firm questioned whether that eight-figure damages model was an “overreach.”
On a large pad propped up on an easel for the jury to see, Dacus listed several settlements that he said Nokia struck with other companies. Most of the amounts were under $1 million.
In one case, which dealt with patented technology similar to Correct Transmission’s, Nokia paid less than half a million for seven patents, Dacus showed jurors. Dell recommended the jury award 70 times that amount for just three patents, Dacus said.
Settlements are not “economically relevant,” Dell contented, because they are the results of litigation in which infringement and validity of patents are disputed and the settlement amounts are not tied to Nokia’s use.
In one settlement, however, there was some indication of how the parties arrived at the amount, and the plaintiff in that case suggested a per-patent rate higher than Dell’s, the consultant said under redirect by Gillam & Smith partner James Travis Underwood.
Nokia lawyers later told Chief U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap that they made a mistake in not requesting the courtroom be sealed for a portion of Dell’s testimony discussing the prior settlement agreements, and the judge agreed to have a portion stricken from the public record. Much of the testimony has been sealed.
Throughout the trial, Nokia has described Correct Transmission’s business model as acquiring patents and attempting to make money off patented technology it did not invent.
Jeremy Pitcock, a New York-based lawyer and the owner and manager of Correct Transmission, testified that his company fronts the costs for litigation and enforcement because “without companies willing to license and enforce patents, the inventors and patent owners may never receive any return” and other companies that use their intellectual property “face no consequences.” His company filed the lawsuit in 2022 after obtaining the patents.
The patents originated with Israeli company Corrigent, which was created in 2000 by Izhak Tamir. Tamir, who traveled to Marshall from Israel to testify, said Corrigent sold products to Nokia Siemens Networks in 2009. Nokia ended up purchasing about $4.4 million worth of products from Corrigent, Tamir said.
All Corrigent products were marked with a label listing each patent that protected the product in different countries. Marking Corrigent’s products was a “major part of my policy,” Tamir told jurors. “I made sure it was followed.”
As the industry took a downward turn, Corrigent’s revenue declined, and 180 of its patents were sold to Orckit in a 2015 liquidation sale.
Nokia’s lawyers pointed out the creator of Orckit was an acquaintance of Tamir’s, that Orckit was named after Tamir’s children and that Tamir loaned Orckit $1.35 million to purchase the patents.
“I was very proud of what we achieved,” Tamir said. “I wanted our patents to be respected.”
Tamir and Orckit stand to get a percentage of any winnings the jury might award in this case, Alston & Bird partner John Haynes, representing Nokia, said while questioning Tamir. Tamir disputed the percentages Haynes suggested.
Haynes alleged the actual inventors won’t get anything from a possible verdict. With Pitcock on the stand, Haynes pointed out that Correct Transmission doesn’t have a contract with any of the inventors. Pitcock said he didn’t know how Orckit would divide its share of any potential winnings.
Orckit sent a letter to Nokia to gauge in 2017 its interest in obtaining a license to or acquiring a patent not at issue in this trial. But along with that letter, Orckit attached its patent profile, which contained the three patents at issue to this trial, Correct Transmission’s lawyer, Greg Dovel, a partner at Dovel & Luner, pointed out during the questioning of Nokia’s first witness, Jeffrey Valley, Nokia vice president of IP networks for North America.
Valley denied Nokia uses the technology covered in Correct Transmission’s patents. Nokia’s technology contains key differences from Correct Transmission’s, Nokia lawyers have sought to show the jury.
“Nokia is 100 percent not infringing the patents that have been discussed here,” Valley said.
The trial will continue Monday. Nokia is also challenging the validity of one of the patents.
The patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos: 7,127,523; 7,283,465 and 7,768,928.
In addition to Underwood and Dovel, Correct Transmission is represented by Jeff Eichmann of Eichmann.
In addition to Dacus and Haynes, Nokia is represented by Michael Clayton Deane, Caleb J. Bean and Nicholas Tang Tsui of Alston & Bird and Michael Charles Smith of Scheef & Stone.
The case is 2:22-cv-00343.