An East Texas jury has ordered Verizon Wireless and two of its affiliated businesses to pay $175 million in an infringement case brought by Tyler-based technology firm Headwater Research.
The jury’s decision reached Wednesday is the second nine-digit damages verdict in three months favoring Headwater, which is led by inventor Greg Raleigh.
The verdict could have been significantly higher but the federal jury in Marshall ruled that Verizon Wireless’ patent infringements were not willful.
Officials for Verizon Wireless told Bloomberg Law that the “decision was simply not supported by the facts and we look forward to vigorously appealing” the decision.
In its lawsuit filed in July 2023, Headwater Research claimed that the defendants infringed two of its patented wireless communications technology through the sale of Apple and Android tablets and cellphones.
Lawyers for Verizon told jurors that Raleigh worked for Qualcomm when he got the original idea for his invention and thus his patent was invalid.
In May, Headwater filed a slew of new patent infringement cases against AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in the Eastern District of Texas.
Lawyers representing Headwater include Adam Hoffman, Benjamin Wang, Qi Tong, Marc Fenster, Reza Mirzaie, Brian Ledahl, Dale Chang, Ben Wang and Kris Davis of the Russ August & Kabat law firm in Los Angeles; Andrea Fair and Garrett Parish of Miller Fair Henry in Longview; and Robert Blunt of Parker Blunt & Ainsworth in Tyler.
The attorneys representing Verizon Wireless include Robert Vincent, Josh Krevitt, Allen Kathir and Andrew Robb of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Deron Dacus of the Dacus Law Firm in Tyler.
Lawyers for Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dore represented Verizon at the start of the litigation, but were disqualified by U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap because former lawyers at WilmerHale previously did legal work for a business affiliated with Headwater.
The case is Headwater Research LLC v. Verizon Communications Inc., E.D.T.X., Case No. 2:23-cv-00352.