Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The jury returned its verdict March 5, finding Downhole Well Solutions' tools infringed three patents held by Impulse and that the infringement was willful. The jury rejected arguments that the patents were invalid. Impulse’s lead lawyer, John Keville of Sheppard, told The Lawbook the jury awarded the damages he requested “to the penny.”
An Austin jury found last week that the rideshare platform Lyft infringed one of Quartz Auto Technologies’ patents and awarded the company $1.05 million. Lyft, accused of infringing five patents, is calling the verdict a win.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit sides with Susman Godfrey and undoes the dismissal of a qui tam False Claims Act suit against Lockheed Martin, and a former financial advisor is convicted of defrauding three NBA players, including two who played for Dallas and Houston.
San Antonio jurors deliberated for nearly three hours after a four-week trial in a trade secrets case that’s been litigated for a decade between HouseCanary and Amrock. The jury found Amrock misappropriated HouseCanary’s trade secrets and defrauded the company.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted a petition for writ of certiorari that Exxon Mobil and Suncor filed more than six months ago that could have a major impact on climate-change litigation the oil companies are facing nationwide. We also provide details on a San Antonio investment company executive who copped to a nearly $70 million Ponzi scheme and a wrongful death lawsuit against Valero stemming from a refinery fire.
CAM Industrial Solutions failed to convince the jury in its trade secrets lawsuit against Brown & Root. The Chambers County jury trial lasted three weeks with the jury deliberating for nearly two days.
A lawsuit that began nearly seven years ago ended Thursday after jurors determined Apple did not infringe five wireless technology patents held by Optis Wireless Technology. Optis had been seeking between $400 million and $600 million in damages, according to court documents. Judge Gilstrap also entered a sua sponte order Thursday finding that Optis and its affiliated entities that were also plaintiffs in the case are “judicially estopped from asserting that they are entitled to recover pre-suit damages” from Apple.
In this edition of the Litigation Roundup, the first jury trial for the Texas Business Court kicked off, while Johnson & Johnson had a motion for summary judgment and its request for a new trial denied and a former partner of a Dallas venture capital firm filed a lawsuit against the firm and its founders, alleging fraud and more. That and more in this week’s edition.
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that all claims of Masaba’s patent for sand-handling equipment are unpatentable as obvious over combinations of prior art references. Masaba accused Solaris Oilfield Services Operating of infringing on the patent in a 2023 lawsuit before the Wyoming District Court.
Earlier this month, a jury in East Texas determined that BOE Technology Group owes $66.8 million in damages for infringing three patents owned by Longitude Licensing that cover semiconductor devices and methods for configuring pixel electrode orientations in LCD displays that are used in computers, monitors and televisions.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, an East Texas scammer who prosecutors said lied about representing the late Major League Baseball player Pete Rose and about owning cannabis dispensaries in Las Vegas is sentenced to prison, and the decision of a Collin County jury in a dispute between a landlord and a tenant over a rat infestation is undone by a Dallas appellate court.
Billions of dollars were awarded by juries in Texas last year in personal injury and patent infringement trials. The largest damage awards were doled out in Bexar and Harris counties.
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