Federal Judiciary

Plaintiff's Verdict in Lufkin Patent Case

By Michael C. Smith

Last Thursday a Lufkin jury in Judge Ron Clark's court renturned a verdict in the Affinity Labs case against Hyundai, Volkswagen & Kia, 9:08cv164.  The sixteen page jury verdict started with findings of direct, induced and contributory infringement on five claims of two patents against Hyundai (specifically the 2010 Hyundai Sonata), then the same findings as to three claims of one patent against Kia (for the 2010 Kia Optima), and the same findings on the original five claims against four Volkswagen products.

On invalidity, the jury found that the defendants had not shown by clear and convincing evidence that the three challenged claims were invalid as anticipated, or the five challenged claims were invalid as obvious under the three combinations asserted, or for failure to meet the written description requirement.

On damages, the jury found $2,430,065 against Hyundai, $406,472 against Kia, and $10,149,993 against Volkswagen.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on November 02, 2010 (boomark / email).