Case Filed: Jan 04, 2013
Case Closed: Feb 05, 2014
Court: Delaware District Court
Judge: Leonard P. Stark
Case Summary:
Steelhead Licensing, a
non-practicing entity filed a pile of lawsuits in the Delaware District Court
against various wireless device manufacturers and wireless network operators including
Sprint Nextel. Other defendants in the suits include Apple, RIM and Motorola,
HTC, LG Electronics, Kyocera, NEC Casio Mobile, Pantech, Sony and ZTE, and
wireless network operators AT&T, MetroPCS, Verizon Wireless and Deutsche
Telekom (T-Mobile USA).
Each of the companies is accused
of infringing a single, expired patent US5491834, entitled “Mobile Radio
Handover Initiation Determination.” The patent originally assigned to British
Telecom issued on Feb 13, 1996 and expired[1]
on Feb 13, 2013. The patent was last assigned[2]
to Steelhead Licensing (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database). In its court filings, Steelhead stated that they are the
owner of the patent and have the exclusive right to recover for past
infringement.
Steelhead’s complaint asserted
infringement based on devices that are compatible with 3G Code-Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standards and practiced
a method that determines the manner in which communications are handed over
from one cell to another in a cellular communications network as covered in the
‘834 patent. The allegedly infringing product includes ZTE Flash which performs the process recited in the ‘834 patent. Steelhead
demanded a jury trial, asking for damages sufficient to compensate for
infringement.
The case is now concluded as the
parties filed stipulation of dismissal. Considering the stipulation, the Court
ordered that all claims asserted in this action be dismissed with prejudice,
with each party to bear its own costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees.
See 1:13-cv-00043
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[1] 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
[2] MaxVal
offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts
when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of
interest are recorded