Last Friday, the jury in the Sensormatic v. WG Security Products, Inc., et al. case pending in Judge Ward's court in Marshall rendered a verdict for the defendant. I have not seen the verdict yet, but it is my understanding that the jury found no infringement on any of the asserted claims of the three patents in suit, but that the defendants had not shown by clear and convincing evidence that the patents were invalid. The parties put on 14 live witnesses and 4 video-only witnesses in the space of four days plus one hour on Friday morning, which is about par for the length of a patent trial in Judge Ward's court. This is the 21st patent verdict in the district in recent years that I am aware of, and the first defense verdict by a jury. This is the case in which Judge Ward denied a motion to compel the inventor's testimony as a non-testifying expert about six weeks ago. See http://mcsmith.blogs.com/eastern_district_of_texas/2006/06/motion_to_compe.html
