Federal Judiciary

Defense verdict in Marshall patent case

By Michael Smith

Last Thursday a Marshall jury returned a defense verdict in the Sofpool v. Intex Recretaion Corp. case in Judge Everingham's court in Marshall.  It found that the defendant did not infringe either of the asserted patents, but it did find that the defendant had not shown by clear and convincing evidence that the second patent was invalid as obvious (no invalidity question on the first patent).  As a result of the "no" on infringement, the jury did not reach the willfulness questions, or the damages question, which asked for the defendant's profits as a result of the use of the patents, as well as for a reasonable royalty.  As far as anyone is aware, this is the first design patent case tried to a verdict in the district.
2008 jury verdict stats for the district are thus now tied at two verdicts for plaintiffs and two for defendants.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on April 21, 2008 (boomark / email).