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A month ago, we discussed how Microsoft and Motorola filed dueling summary judgment motions in an attempt to eliminate some of the issues from the upcoming RAND breach of contract jury trial in Seattle (currently set to begin August 26).  Judge James L. Robart held an oral argument on July 31, and this morning, his order hit the docket (the order is actually dated yesterday — Judge Robart is apparently not taking Sundays off).

[2013.08.11 Order on Microsoft-Motorola SJ Motions]

As you can tell from the title of this post, Judge Robart granted summary judgment on some — but not nearly all — of the issues briefed by the parties.  Both Microsoft and Motorola prevailed on some issues and lost on others.  The bottom line is that the jury will still have a lot to decide in this case.  After the jump, we’ll take a look at how Judge Robart ruled — starting with the motions that he denied.


Continue Reading Two weeks ahead of Microsoft-Motorola jury trial, summary judgment ruling reduces the issues (but only a little bit)

Microsoft and Motorola are currently hurtling toward an August 26 jury trial in their RAND breach of contract dispute in Seattle.  But it looks like the SEP disputes between the parties are not limited to the United States, however.  In a letter filed with Judge James L. Robart’s court yesterday, Microsoft claims that it was…

Back in June, we alerted you to a jury verdict handed down in a patent case in the Eastern District of Texas, where the jury awarded Ericsson several million dollars as compensation for infringement of several of its 802.11-essential patents by several manufacturers of WiFi-compliant products and components.  At the time, we noted that the jury only addressed issue of validity, infringement, and damages, with SEP-specific issues being potentially left for presiding Judge Leonard Davis to decide.  (In fact, the court held a bench trial on RAND issues on June 12).  The parties filed post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law on several issues, and yesterday, Judge Davis issued a lengthy Memorandum Opinion and Order broadly upholding the jury’s verdict.

[13.08.06 (Dkt 615) Ericsson v. D-Link Order on Post-Trial Motions]

As we suspected, some RAND obligation-related issues reared their heads — but Judge Davis rejected the defendants’ RAND-based arguments and defenses.  In doing so, he made some statements that might be construed as a marked departure from the route taken by Judge Robart in the Microsoft-Motorola case.  After the jump, we’ll take a look at what Judge Davis concluded with respect to Ericsson’s RAND obligations.Continue Reading Rebutting Judge Robart? E.D. Tex. Judge Leonard Davis upholds jury damages award on WiFi SEPs, dismisses RAND-related issues (Ericsson v. D-Link)

The sprawling patent infringement action in the Northern District of Illinois involving Innovatio IP Ventures is often in the headlines not because it involves standard-essential patents, but because it involves (in part) patent infringement claims brought by a non-practicing entity (Innovatio) against “end users” (coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, etc.).  But last Friday, Judge James F. Holderman issued a ruling that may be the first of its kind for a district court — a ruling addressing the “essentiality” of patent claims, separate and apart from the issue of infringement.  If you’re not familiar with this case (and even if you are), bear with us — we’ll try to explain just why this ruling is so “essential” (sorry).

[2013.07.26 (Dkt 851) Order re Essentiality]

Warning — this is going to be a long post.Continue Reading Judge issues “essential” first-of-its-kind ruling, finding all of Innovatio’s WiFi-related patent claims to be 802.11-essential (and subject to RAND obligations)

Earlier this week, we caught up on summary judgment motions filed by both Microsoft and Motorola in advance of next month’s breach of contract jury trial, set to take place in Seattle.  Yesterday, both parties filed reply briefs in support of these motions:

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It’s July (and brutally hot on the East Coast), so you’ll have to excuse us if we’re moving a little slower than normal catching up on all the SEP litigation going around.  Earlier this month we posted about submissions by Microsoft and Motorola concerning the meaning of the “duty of good faith and fair dealing,” specifically as it applies in RAND-encumbered standard-essential patent licensing.  Not surprisingly, the parties followed up these briefs with dueling summary judgment motions, seeking to narrow issues or even potentially completely eliminate the need for the breach of contract jury trial set to take place next month in Seattle.  Last week, the parties also filed their respective oppositions to these motions.  You can take a look at the parties’ motions and oppositions below — and after the jump, we’ll give a brief synopsis of the arguments that each is making.

13.07.03 (D.E. 727) Microsoft Motion for Partial SJ and 13.07.15 (D.E. 758) Motorola Response to MS Partial SJ Motion

13.07.03 (D.E. 720) Motorola Motion for SJ and 13.07.12 (D.E. 740) MS Response to Motorola SJ MotionContinue Reading With dueling summary judgment motions, Microsoft and Motorola seek to eliminate issues from next month’s RAND trial

This past Friday, Judge Richard Andrews of the District Court of Delaware held a hearing on InterDigital’s motions to dismiss several FRAND-related counterclaims in three district court cases InterDigital brought against Huawei, ZTE, and Nokia over 4G-essential patents.  For a brief refresher on the issues raised in InterDigital’s motions to dismiss — which have been…

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…

Later this summer, the second phase of the Microsoft v. Motorola RAND breach of contract trial will take place in Judge James L. Robart’s courtroom in Seattle, WA.  A jury will decide whether Motorola breached its SSO-related RAND licensing obligations by offering what Microsoft deems “blatantly unreasonable” licensing terms for its 802.11- and H.264-essential patents, and then following up with patent infringement suits.

In a prior summary judgment order, Judge Robart already concluded that in order to be permissible under its RAND obligations, Motorola’s license offers “must comport with the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing inherent in every contract.”  He noted that this inquiry is heavily fact-intensive, and best left to the jury to decide.  To this end, Judge Robart recently requested that both Microsoft and Motorola present background briefing on the parameters of what is required by the duty of good faith and fair dealing in contractual disputes.  This week, the parties complied with this request:

Both parties acknowledge that the issue of good faith and fair dealing is complicated — but understandably, the parties also differ quite a bit in their views on what should be considered.  After the jump, we’ll take a brief look at the filings.


Continue Reading In Microsoft-Motorola RAND dispute, “good faith and fair dealing” is in the eye of the beholder

Over the past few years, courts have begun cracking down on improper damages theories.  The Federal Circuit’s 2012 opinion in LaserDynamics v. Quanta is instructive on this point, noting that in the absence of evidence that the patented functionality is the source of the demand for the entire product, then damages must be based on…