Fish & Richardson Wins Defense Verdict in $85 million Patent Trial

By Mark Curriden
The Texas Lawbook
mark.curriden@texaslawbook.net

An east Texas jury has rejected an $85 million lawsuit by a Tyler company claiming that it invented the technology that allows airline passengers and purchasers of concert tickets to view available seating online.

The unanimous federal court jury in Tyler ruled Wednesday that Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Ticketmaster and other defendants did not infringe upon CEATS Inc.’s patents because the company’s patents were invalid.

The jury deliberated for more than 10 hours this week before ruling that someone other than CEATS had already invented the technology and that the technology was so similar to existing programming code that any new patent would be unenforceable.

“We presented witnesses and documentation showing that Expedia, back when it was part of Microsoft, had developed this programming code back in 1997,” said trial lawyer Tom Melsheimer, who represented several of the defendants.

“People who say that juries don’t understand complex cases aren’t paying attention,” says Melsheimer, a partner at Fish & Richardson in Dallas.

The seven-day patent trial included another unique element: U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis allowed jurors to ask witnesses questions about their testimony. While many judges have allowed jurors to ask questions during many types of civil trials for years, most federal judges have been reluctant, especially in patent disputes, because of the complexities.

Neither the plaintiffs nor defense objected. Melsheimer said the jurors asked several questions, which provided insight into their thinking.

CEATS legal team, which was led by McDermott, Will & Emery partner Fay Morisseau in Houston and J. Thad Heartfield of Beaumont, pointed that the defendants could not produce the actual source code for the technology and thus shouldn’t be believed.

However, a juror asked, “Why would you need to keep code that is 15 years old and not needed any longer?”

“That question showed us that the jurors were attentive to our argument,” Melsheimer said.

CEATS officials did not respond to an inquiry for comments. However, it is expected that the company’s lawyers will appeal and seek a new trial.

The other lawyers instrumental for the defense were Fish & Richardson partners Carl Bruce, John Goetz, Andrew Graben, and Neil MacNabnay, Max Ciccarelli and Michael Heinlen of Thompson & Knight, and Jennifer Ainsworth of Wilson Robertson & Cornelius.

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