A coast-to-coast Alston & Bird legal team secured a defense win for Nokia of America Corp. in a jury trial before U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap.

Dallas area-based non-practicing entity, Correct Transmission LLC, sued Nokia based on four patents—three of which the jury was allowed to consider.

Correct Transmission had also sued Microsoft and other companies for infringement of the same network technology patents.

The trial took place in Marshall in the Eastern District of Texas. Jurors were introduced to the following three patents:

  1. The '523 patent, entitled "Spanning Tree Protocol Traffic in a Transparent LAN."
  2. The '465 patent, entitled "Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service Protection Scheme."
  3. The '928 patent, entitled "Connectivity Fault Management in Networks with Link Aggregation Group Connections.

Pretrial motions and discovery took more than two years. According to the docket, several rulings went against the plaintiff.

For instance, Smart Path Connections LLC, represented by the same counsel, tried a patent case against Nokia, Smart Path Connections, LLC v. Nokia of America, No. 2:22-cv-00343. At trial, Smart Path played a portion of the deposition of Nokia employee Phillipe Bergeon.

U.S. Magistrate Roy S. Payne, denied Correct Transmission's attempt to use that deposition testimony, stating, "less than three weeks before trial, (CT) moves to designate that deposition testimony in this action."

Prior to that, on Oct. 23, 2023, Payne's Claim Construction Order, which defines the meaning of a patent's claims, generally favored Nokia. The order stated, for instance, on one claim, "the term is limited to the construction proposed by the defendant."

Alston & Bird attorneys would not comment on the six-day trial, which concluded with the verdict entered on the nation's general election day, Nov. 5. The law firm issued a brief statement that explained the allegations referred to Nokia's router products.

According to Correct Transmission filings, the company sought about $35 million in damages.

Counsel for the plaintiff did not respond to a request for comment. According to ipfray.com, the plaintiff will likely try to get the verdict overruled, seek retrial, or appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

While the jury's verdict found that Nokia did not infringen on any of the three patents, it also found that Nokia did not prevail on its counterclaim alleging patent '523 "invalid as lacking an adequate written description."

  • Case: Correct Transmission LLC v. Nokia of America Corp.
  • Case No.: 2:22-cv-00343
  • Description: Patent Infringement
  • Filing Date: Sept. 2, 2022
  • Verdict Date: Nov. 5, 2024
  • Judge: U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, Eastern District of Texas, Marshall
  • Plaintiff Attorneys: Gregory S. Dovel, Dovel & Luner, Santa Monica, California; James T. Underwood, Gillam & Smith, Tyler, Texas; John J. Eichmann of Eichmann, A Professional Corp., Santa Monica, California.
  • Defense Attorneys: Alston & Bird partners John D. Haynes (lead) and Nicholas Tsui of Atlanta, and Thomas Davison of Wash., D.C.; of counsel Caleb Bean, Los Angeles; and senior associates Nicholas Marais, Karlee Wroblewski, Katherine Rubschlager, and Madelaine Wieland.