Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Microsoft Loses Patent Case In Eastern Texas Courts

Further reinforcing the reputation of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas as the patent lawsuit capital of the world, a Silicon Valley firm, VirnetX, has scored a huge, $105.75M award from Microsoft over patent infringement of two of VirnetX's patents. VirnetX had filed a patent lawsuit in 2007 against Microsoft, over two of its patents covering virtual private network (VPN) technology. VirnetX was represented by Dallas-based law firm McKool Smith in the patent lawsuit. The law firm said that jurors awarded $71.75 million against Microsoft for infringing on U.S. patent 6,502,135, and $34 million for infringing on U.S. patent 7,188,180. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas is a very popular location for patent infringement suits, due to a reputation for favorable judgements; the court now field a large chunk of the patent lawsuits filed each year by corporations.