Intellectual Property Law

Marshall, TX Treating Plaintiffs So-So in 2009

By Peter Zura

Last Thursday a Marshall jury in Judge Ward's court in Fiber Systems Int'l v. Applied Optical, 2:06cv473 returned a defense verdict on infringement in a patent case . . . I think that's the third defense jury verdict in the district this year in patent cases (two Marshall and one Beaumont), not counting Judge Davis' ruling in favor of Microsoft after jury selection in the Fenner case in March, and Judge Ward's granting of JMOL in defendant's favor at the conclusion of the plaintiff's case in Paradox. That's without getting into the sticky issue of how you count defense wins on damages (Retractable) or on postverdict JMOLs on damages (Hearing Components - award reduced postverdict from $4.6 million to $1.39 million). By my count then, you can score it this year so far anywhere from 8-3-1 to 6-6-1 (depends on whether you count a post-jury selection grant of summary judgment or not) depending on what you count as a plaintiff win and what as a defense win. The tie is, of course the Thermapure case, which as I posted last was, was a plaintiff win on infringement but a hung jury on damages, which will be retried on damages next March

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).