Posted 1:34 am Thursday, March 18, 2010
Firm Wins $105.8M In Patent Lawsuit Against Microsoft
By DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
A federal jury in Tyler on Tuesday awarded the California-based VirnetX $105.8 million in a patent infringement suit they filed against Microsoft in 2007. The verdict came after a week long trial in which the jury determined that Microsoft violated two of its patents. The case was heard in U.S. Judge Leonard Davis' courtroom.
Both of these patents involved software and hardware known as a virtual private network.
"The patents both protect a way of making it easier to communicate safely on the Internet," said Dallas attorney Doug Cawley of the McKool Smith law firm, which represented VirnetX in the suit.
VirnetX had sought an award of $242 million, and plans to ask the judge for an order blocking Microsoft's further use of the inventions.
Cawley said the patent made it easier to set up a virtual private network, which allows businesses to send data, pictures, and texts to other businesses or people.
It is possible that Judge Davis may triple the award given to VirnetX by the jury.
"The jury found that Microsoft infringed willfully on the patents, which will allow him to enhance what the jury awarded," Cawley said. "But it's rarely triple the award," he added.
He said he expects briefs to now be filed, and the judge will make his ruling about the enhanced award in late June or early July.
Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs for Microsoft, said in an e-mail that the company was disappointed by the jury's verdict and plans to ask the court to overturn the verdict.
"We respect others' intellectual property, and we believe the evidence demonstrated that we do not infringe and the patents are invalid. We believe the award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."
The federal courts in East Texas, mainly Tyler and Marshall, have had numerous patent infringement lawsuits filed within their systems in the past several years. Microsoft had to pay $200 million in such a suit in 2009, and has been named in two other large lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas involving more than a dozen companies that reached unpublicized settlements.
Patent cases are always complex and usually dragged out for four or five years before they are resolved, which makes them more expensive. Judge John Ward of the Marshall District Court adopted the "patent rules" implemented by the Northern District of California, which is one of the most active patent districts in the country, Judge Davis said.
The "patent rules" forces the attorneys involved in patent cases to reduce their issues and get cases to trial more quickly, bringing "order to chaos," he said.
Staff Writer Casey Murphy contributed to this report.
