Texas Lawyer will be running a slightly modified version of last week's National Law Journal article on the local patent docket in Monday's issue, this time entitled "Patent Defense Strikes Back" by Sheri Qualters. It features analysis of and commentary on the recent trend it detects of patent defense verdicts in the district. It's a good article.
In other news, a jury in U.S. Magistrate Judge Judge Roy S. Payne's court in Marshall returned a verdict of $15.34 million for the plaintiff today in the Pact XPP Tech. v. Xilinx & Avnet patent case this afternoon. All five claims were found infringed by both defendants, none invalid as anticipated or obvious, yes on willful infringement, and damages of $15,399,900.
Pact was the second patent case tried in Marshall since the retirement of Judges Ward and Everingham at the end of September. The first, Alexsam v. Pier 1 Imports, tried by Judge Schneider, resulted in a defense verdict on infringement, and now we have a plaintiff's verdict as well, so Marshall remains at 50/50 for the past eight months. I think Tyler is two plaintiff and four defense during the same period, with half the defense wins being on invalidity. I know Judges Gilstrap and Bryson (from the Federal Circuit) have at least four more patent cases set for trial through the summer, plus whatever is set through the rest of the district, so we'll have a few more data points by Labor Day.
