Apple Wins Suit against Wi-LAN over Wireless Technology

Case Filed: Sep 01, 2011

Case Closed: Oct 25, 2013

Judge: Rodney Gilstrap

Court: Texas Eastern District Court

Case Summary:

A patent infringement case was filed by Wi-LAN, a patent holding company accusing Apple of infringing two of their patents relating to wireless communication technologies. The complaint also named Alcatel-Lucent USA, Dell, HP, HTC, Kyocera, Novatel Wireless and Sierra Wireless as other defendants in the suit. The patents in suit were:

•         RE37802 entitled Multicode direct sequence spread spectrum, issued on Jul 23, 2002
•       US5282222 entitled Method and apparatus for multiple access between transceivers in wireless communications using OFDM spread spectrum, issued on Jan 25, 1994

The patents expired[i] on Mar 31, 2012 and were last assigned[ii] to Wi-LAN (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database). The complaint alleged that defendants manufacture wireless communication products with CDMA2000 standards (including EVDO Rev. A), HSPA standards, IEEE 802.11 standards, and/or LTE standards, which fall within the scope of the claims of the ‘802 and ‘222 patents.

“By way of their infringing activities, defendants have caused and continue to cause Wi-LAN to suffer damages in an amount…”, the complaint said. Whereof, Wi-LAN requested entry of judgment in its favor, a permanent injunction barring defendants from infringing the patents-in-suit, compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interest on damages, as well as attorneys' fees and litigation costs.

Apart from Apple, all defendants resolved the dispute, including Alcatel-Lucent, Dell, HP, HTC, Novatel Wireless, Sierra Wireless and Kyocera were dismissed from the case with prejudice. In Oct, jury reached a verdict favoring Apple and declared claims 1 and 10 of the ‘802 patent to be invalid. Also, the Court found Apple as the prevailing party and costs and expenses are imposed on plaintiff.

See 2:12-cv-00600 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

* Expected expiration date using Patent Term Estimator, use our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.

---

[i] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.

[ii] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.