Nearly a week after a judge in the Eastern District of Texas wiped out a $111.7 million infringement verdict that a jury had rendered against Samsung, a different jury resolved a separate patent infringement case against the electronics giant by assessing a $78.5 million verdict.
Anonymous Media Research Holdings had filed suit against Samsung Electronics Co. and Samsung Electronics America in September 2023, alleging infringement of two patents covering technology used to measure media consumption. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap presided over the case that began with jury selection Monday and ended with Friday’s verdict.
The jury deliberated for about three hours Friday. The lead lawyer for Anonymous, Jason McManis of Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing told The Lawbook in an interview that the panel awarded damages “to the dollar we asked for.”
Jurors wrote in the verdict form that 52 percent of the damages awarded stemmed from infringement of one patent, while 48 percent could be tied to infringement of the second patent. The patents in suit are 10,719,848 and 10,963,911.
Samsung’s lead attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment late Friday afternoon.
McManis explained that Anonymous was founded by two inventors, Jonathan Steuer and Chris Otto, who in 2004 conceived of a “media measurement panel” that would be able to compete with the likes of Nielsen.
“I think people are more familiar with media measurement than they realize,” he said, referencing Nielsen. “That’s where our client saw their invention being used, but the truth is companies like Samsung have started using this for targeted advertising.”
Samsung told jurors the patents were invalid, that other inventors had come up with the technology first and that they hadn’t infringed the technology.
“They sort of threw everything at the wall,” McManis said.
A related patent infringement case brought by Anonymous Media has been filed in the Northern District of California and is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria granted Roku’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in that case Sept. 12.
McManis said in the case against Samsung the testimony of the inventors was key to getting the verdict in his client’s favor.
“Our inventors were just really genuine guys who told their story and they sat there and were cross-examined by Samsung’s lawyer,” he said. “They’re two guys who had some really good ideas and worked really hard to get patents on it. … [W]e’re really pleased with the verdict, we’re really grateful for the jury’s time and attention, and it’s been an honor to fight for these two guys in Anonymous Media.”
Anonymous Media Research Holdings is also represented by Weining Bai, Sujeeth Rajavolu, Louis Liao, Hailey Pulman, Chun Deng, Ab Henry and Michael Killingsworth of Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, Warren J. McCarty III of The McCarty Firm and Andrea L. Fair of Miller Fair Henry.
Samsung is represented by Robert W. Unikel, Grayson Cornwell, Daniel J. Blake, Allan M. Soobert, James V. Razick, David Valente, Jason Mikus, Kevin Stewart, Matthias A. Kamber, Andrea Roberts, Elizabeth L. Brann, Ariell N. Bratton and Helen Gustafson of Paul Hastings and Melissa R. Smith of Gillam & Smith.
The case number is 2:23-cv-00439.