$43M Awarded to Intellectual Ventures I LLC in Patent Infringement Trial
A Texas jury awarded $43 million to Intellectual Ventures I LLC after finding telecom heavyweights T-Mobile and Ericsson Inc. infringed on the company’s patents used for wireless services for the LTE network. The jury awarded $34 million against T-Mobile and $9 million against Ericsson, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.
The jury also determined T-Mobile and Ericsson failed to provide convincing evidence that Intellectual Ventures’ claims involving the patents were invalid. The case was decided on Feb. 8 following a one-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall.
“We are grateful for the jurors’ attention in this case and their decision in favor of our client,” said Johnny Ward of Ward, Smith & Hill PLLC, who represented Intellectual Ventures. “This verdict shows you can’t infringe on another company’s patents and expect to get away with it.”
The patents-in-suit trial included U.S. Patent Nos. 6,628,629, 7,412,517 and RE46,206 owned by Intellectual Ventures for wireless transmissions. Bellevue, Washington-based Intellectual Ventures is a global invention and investment business that creates, incubates, and commercializes impactful inventions.
Also representing Intellectual Ventures were Ward, Smith & Hill partners Claire Abernathy Henry and Andrea Fair, along with co-counsel Martin J. Black and Kevin M. Flannery of Dechert LLP.
The case is Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., T-Mobile US, Inc., Ericsson Inc., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, case number 2:17-cv-577, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
