Recent Successes
August 25, 2011
A federal judge has entered a $10.1 million final judgment in favor of Fitch Even client Alexsam, Inc., after a favorable jury verdict in its patent infringement lawsuit against IDT Corporation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Alexsam owns U.S. Patent Nos. 6,000,608 and 6,189,787, which relate to the activation of prepaid phone cards, gift cards, and other stored value cards at retail locations using standard retail point-of-sale terminals.
Alexsam asserted at trial that IDT’s systems for activating prepaid long-distance calling cards and Visa gift cards through IDT-authorized retail locations infringe both patents. On February 15 of this year, the jury returned a verdict finding that each of the accused IDT card activation systems infringes and awarded damages of $9.06 million as a reasonable royalty on past sales.
IDT then filed several post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law, in addition to requesting a new trial on damages. On August 18, the Honorable Charles Everingham IV granted IDT’s motion regarding a partial license defense, but denied all of IDT’s other motions. Alexsam was also awarded prejudgment interest, resulting in a final award of $10.1 million.
The judgment addresses only past infringement. In a separate order, the court granted Alexsam’s motion to sever post-verdict royalties and opened a new civil action for the determination of future royalties for continued use of the products, methods, and systems found to be infringing at trial.
Fitch Even’s trial team consisted of Steven C. Schroer, Timothy P. Maloney, Alison A. Richards, David A. Gosse, and Nicole L. Little, together with local trial counsel Melissa Smith of the law firm Gillam & Smith in Marshall, Texas.
IDT was represented at trial by Denver-based Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott and Washington, D.C.-based Murphy & King, together with local trial counsel from the Heartfield Law Firm.
