WacoWatch

On September 18, 2024, Judge Albright found four Volvo dealerships do not constitute regular and established places of business for two Volvo defendants and transferred a patent infringement case against them to the District of New Jersey on the grounds that the Western District of Texas (W.D. Tex.) is an improper venue.

On May 20, 2024, Judge Albright issued an order granting Micron Technology, Inc.’s (Micron) request to amend its invalidity contentions “to include U.S. Patent No. 7,397,713; U.S. Patent No. 7,174,440; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0110343 as secondary references . . . to address [Sonrai Memory Limited’s (Sonrai)] new infringement theory” in Sonrai Memory Ltd. & Nera Innovations Ltd. v. Micron Technology, Inc., 1:23-cv-01407-ADA (W.D. Tex. May 20, 2024).

VLSI Technology, LLC sued Intel Corporation in the Western District of Texas for infringement of two patents, U.S. Patent Nos. 7,523,373 (’373) and 7,725,759 (’759). A jury trial in February and March 2021 found infringement of both patents and awarded separate lump-sum damages for each patent—$1.5 billion for the ’373 patent and $675 million for the ’759 patent. 

On February 2, 2022, Zentian filed a complaint against Apple alleging infringement of four patents directed to improving the performance and efficiency of speech recognition on-device systems, including in the areas of parallel processing and circuit configurations.

On May 17, 2023, Judge Albright granted Defendant Apple Inc.’s (Apple) motion for an intra-district transfer of venue to the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas. Plaintiff SpaceTime 3D, Inc. (SpaceTime) had alleged that Apple infringed several patents relating to various systems and methods for switching between applications on a mobile device.

On January 31, 2023, Judge Albright granted Plaintiffs NCS Multistage Inc. and NCS Multistage LLC’s (collectively, “NCS”) Motion for Award of Ongoing Royalties for Post-Judgment Infringement.

On January 30, 2023, Judge Albright granted Defendants Ericsson and Verizon’s motion to sever Plaintiff Dali Wireless’s infringement claims against Verizon, and to stay these claims pending the resolution of the infringement claims against Ericsson.

On September 30, 2021, plaintiff Sightline Payments sued four Everi entities for infringement of five patents related to cashless transactions for the gaming industry.

On Friday, March 26, with trial set to begin the following Monday, Judge Alan D Albright held a hearing on a motion for “death penalty” sanctions—to strike the defendant’s pleadings and enter a judgment of infringement—in the case of Performance Chemical Company v. True Chemical Solutions, LLC WDTX-6-21-cv-00222.