A couple weeks ago, we posted about an interesting pretrial damages ruling in a patent infringement case (actually, several cases) brought by non-practicing entity Wi-LAN against a number of standards-compliant device makers (Sony, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and HTC). But yesterday, an Eastern District of Texas jury decided that the damages issue was irrelevant, finding that all of Wi-LAN asserted patent claims were not infringed and were also invalid.
Wi-LAN had accused the defendants of infringing several patents by manufacturing and selling base stations and handsets that are compliant with the 3GPP High-Speed Packet data Access cellular standard (HSPA). The jury apparently disagreed with Wi-LAN’s contention that these patents were actually essential to the HSPA standard, because it found that none of the defendants’ HSPA-compliant products infringed. In addition, the jury found that each of the asserted claims were invalid, finding that the prior art both anticipated the claims and rendered them obvious.
It appears that SEP-specific issues such as duty of disclosure or RAND licensing obligations didn’t play a particular large role in this case (especially given that the jury didn’t end up awarding any damages).