V&E Wins $31M IP Defense Verdict for HTC

© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.

By Natalie Posgate

(May 14) – An East Texas jury on Friday threw out claims that HTC Corp. infringed on a former U.S. government rocket scientist’s patent on user interface and infrared universal remote control technology.

After three-and-a-half hours of deliberation, a jury in the Marshall federal court determined that a universal remote control feature on Taiwan-based HTC’s flagship line of smartphones, which allowed the phones to be used as a universal remote control to operate various external devices like televisions, does not infringe on the patent of the plaintiff, Joe Andrew Salazar.

In a statement, V&E partner Fred Williams called the jury’s take-nothing verdict “a complete defense win” and said the team was “very pleased” with it.

“The plaintiff, Mr. Salazar, is a distinguished scientist with a substantial record of public service, personal achievement and invention claims,” said Williams, who heads V&E’s intellectual property practice group. “His lawyers prosecuted the case vigorously until the end. Our trial team worked extremely hard on this case, ever since we took on the matter earlier this year. My partners Todd Landis and Eric Klein were vital to HTC’s defense. The in-house legal team at HTC was also instrumental in winning the case. And our esteemed co-counsel Harry “Gil” Gillam of Gillam + Smith in Marshall, was outstanding as always.”

The HTC in-house team included Executive Patent Litigation Director David Wiggins, Chief Patent Litigation Counsel of North America Vince Lam and Darren Lim.

Lawyers for Salazar were not immediately available for comment.

Salazar filed the lawsuit against HTC in October 2016. His lawyers asked for $31 million, claiming the HTC One M7, HTC One M8 and HTC One M9 smartphones infringed on Salazar’s patent.

HTC vehemently denied the allegations and litigated the case for more than a year before hiring V&E. The V&E team, which also included associate Mario Apreotesi, took over as lead counsel for HTC four months before trial.

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