An East Texas federal jury on Friday ruled that network security company APCON Inc. did not infringe on five patents involving network data management technology owned by Gigamon, Inc. and invalidated every patent at issue in the weeklong trial.
The complete defense verdict bucks the EDTX’s trend of what is largely viewed as a venue with predominantly plaintiff-friendly outcomes in IP cases.
Lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis, who defended APCON in the litigation, said the verdict has the potential to affect the competitive landscape for network security technology and that it was a bet-the-companye case for APCON, since the lawsuit had sought an injunction to stop APCON from selling all of its products. According to the lawyers, the litigation pitted APCON against the largest network visibility company in the industry.
Lawyers for both sides did not immediately return requests for comment or further comment. Gigamon’s lead attorney is Alan Kellman of the Desmarais firm in New York.
Filed in August 2019, Gigamon’s lawsuit alleged that APCON’s products, including its IntellaFlex XR and IntellaStore Platform, infringed on Gigamon’s patents, which deprived Gigamon of sales and profits and also depressed prices of Gigamon’s products. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, who presided over the case, conducted a Markman hearing in June 2020, which was one of the first in-person hearings in EDTX since the pandemic began.
California partners Adam Alper and Michael De Vries led the Kirkland team representing APCON. They teamed up with Texas lawyers from Siebman Forrest Burg & Smith and Whitaker Chalk Swindle & Schwartz. The Siebman Forrest lawyers involved include Anna Skupin and Elizabeth Siebman Forrest from the firm’s Sherman office and Michael Smith from the firm’s Marshall office. The Whitaker Chalk team includes Fort Worth attorneys Richard Schwartz and Enrique Sanchez, Jr.
Longview attorneys William Davis and Edward Chin of The Davis Firm served as local counsel for Gigamon.