An East Texas jury on Tuesday found that Samsung Display Company willfully infringed on two screen display patents used in Samsung Galaxy phones, awarding an Irish company $62.7 million.
After a six-day trial in Marshall federal court, the jury ordered Samsung to pay the patent owner, Solas OLED, a lump sum of $27.3 million for one patent and $35.4 million for another, which both relate to active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) functions used in OLED displays for Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones. U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas presided over the case.
The jury found a third patent to be invalid.
Claire Abernathy Henry, one of Solas OLED’s lawyers, told The Texas Lawbook that the jury of three men and four women deliberated for about three hours before returning the mid-afternoon verdict.
“The courtroom is a great equalizer. It’s [the] one place where a patent owner can stand on equal footing with a company the size of Samsung,” Henry said of the importance of the verdict.
Samsung and its lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Henry, a partner in Longview, Texas at Ward, Smith & Hill, said her side presented “very strong evidence” of Samsung’s willfulness in violating the patents, particularly Solas OLED’s ‘311 patent, which is related to the touch sensor technology included in the display of smart devices. She said the evidence included documents that revealed both the effort made by the inventor of the patents to partner with Samsung as well as Samsung’s knowledge about the inventions and patents.
This directly challenged Samsung’s defense that it only used technology based off of its own inventions and designs, Henry said.
In terms of damages, Henry said Samsung argued for capping the amount at the purchase price of the patents, and that her side was able to demonstrate that Samsung’s proposal was “not appropriate,” which led the jury to award Solas OLED the damages amount it had requested “down to the dollar” for the two patents the jury found Samsung had infringed.
As the parties enter post-trial proceedings, Henry said her team does not yet know “what the strategy is going to be” with the patent the jury invalidated, but she pointed out that the invalidated patent expired in 2017.
In addition to Henry, Solas OLED’s trial team included Henry’s law partners, Johnny Ward and Andrea Fair, of Ward, Smith & Hill. The team also included Marc Fenster, Reza Mirzaie and Neil Rubin of Los Angeles firm Russ August & Kabat.
Samsung’s lawyers include Marshall attorneys Melissa Richards and Harry Gillam, Jr. Smith of Gillian & Smith and a group of Covington & Burling lawyers from the firm’s Palo Alto, Washington, D.C. and Seoul, South Korea offices.