Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Nearly two months after a Waco jury rendered a $2.175 billion verdict for VLSI in the first installment of its three-part patent infringement legal battle with Intel, a separate jury in the same courtroom Wednesday rendered a victory for Intel, sending hedge fund-owned VLSI home with zero dollars. Legal experts told The Lawbook why they thought Intel had better success this time around.
A decade-plus-old trade secrets legal battle is closer to a resolution after a jury awarded $86 million to Plano-based AMS Sensors USA on Friday. The litigation has gone before two East Texas juries, two federal trial judges and the Federal Circuit. Natalie Posgate details the twists and turns for AMS and its lawyers at Munck Wilson Mandala.
For those following the patent jury verdicts unfolding in Judge Albright’s court, the game count is now tipping toward defense wins, 2-1. Roku was the latest to score a defense win on Friday, which came after a separate defense win Roku scored in October during Judge Albright’s first patent jury trial. But those aren’t even the most notable facts of the case. Natalie Posgate has the details.
Friday’s opinion marks the near-end of a 19-year legal battle for Farmers Insurance and its lawyers at Norton Rose Fulbright — featuring two appeals on class certification issues, a mandamus proceeding, a jury trial and now an appeal before the Texas Supreme Court.
TechnipFMC lawyers told jurors Thursday that a former chief engineer, Rick Murphy, went to work for competitor Dril-Quip and stole valuable trade secrets for cutting-edge, ocean floor oil extraction equipment. But defense lawyers challenged that narrative and argued that the trial is just a way for FMC to compete in the courtroom instead of the free market. Natalie Posgate has details from day one of the trial in state Judge R.K. Sandill’s court.
A Houston federal judge last week awarded $3 million to oil industry employment website Rigzone.com and its parent company, DHI, several days after a jury found co-founder David Kent misappropriated trade secrets to help grow a competing website that he left to start. But the defense says it's not that simple and considers the judgment a "complete victory." Natalie Posgate explains.
Ten months in, the case was still in its infancy when U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan of the Eastern District of Texas dismissed it and invalidated the patent at issue under Section 101 grounds, which lawyers involved say is a rare occurrence for patent cases filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
A legal battle between two Energy Transfer subsidiaries and the City of San Antonio's utility company is just one example of the many lawsuits that are surfacing after winter storm Uri — and just one of more than a dozen lawsuits that the nation's largest municipally-owned utility company is bringing against natural gas providers.
Now that the Texas Supreme Court lifted its statewide ban on in-person court proceedings and jury trials, the question is when and how will district courts open their courtrooms. The answer: Not all at the same time or the same way. This article has in-depth interviews with the judges making the decisions.
A federal jury in East Texas awarded Plano-based property management software company ResMan with a $152 million verdict after finding a former customer improperly accessed ResMan’s software to develop its own rival product with a third party. The verdict is the conclusion of only one of two trials in the case, the first of which resulted in a mistrial due to a Covid-19 outbreak. Natalie Posgate has the details.
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