Fed. Circ. Won't Revisit OPTi's $3M Patent WinBy Kevin Penton
Law360, New York (March 28, 2016, 9:02 PM ET) -- The Federal Circuit declined Monday to reconsider its February order that left intact a $3 million award OPTi Inc. won after a Texas federal jury held that computer parts maker VIA Technologies Inc. infringed the patent-holding company's “predictive snooping” technology patent.
The appellate court did not expand on its reasoning for declining VIA’s bids for either a panel or an en banc hearing of the court's Feb. 8 order, which affirmed a September 2013 judgment by U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap that upheld OPTi's jury award of $2.1 million in compensatory damages and ordered $974,000 in prejudgment interest.
Counsel for the parties could not be reached Monday for comment.
OPTi had hit Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. and VIA with a patent infringement suit in July 2010, alleging that the companies induced third-party manufacturers to make and sell products that infringed two “presnoop patents,” according to court documents. The patents describe ways of transferring data between a processor, memory and other computer components, according to their descriptions.
By the time of trial in May 2013, OPTi had dropped claims against SIS after the two companies reached an undisclosed settlement and dropped claims against VIA related to one of the patents, according to court documents.
Jurors ultimately found that VIA directly infringed the remaining patent and induced others to do so, and awarded OPTi $2.11 million in damages. VIA was also ordered to pay OPTi an ongoing royalty as it continues to sell infringing products.
On appeal, VIA argued that OPTi failed to show how devices VIA sold copied the patent, arguing that the patent-holding company used a flawed analysis of the accused devices, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, OPTi filed a cross-appeal in the case, challenging the jury’s finding that VIA's infringement was not willful. The appellate panel affirmed that aspect of the jury's finding in February.
The patent-in-suit is U.S. Patent Number 5,710,906.
OPTi is represented by Michael L. Brody, Geoffrey P. Eaton and James E. McComb of Winston & Strawn LLP.
VIA is represented by Brian A. Carpenter and Eric W. Buether of Buether Joe & Carpenter LLC and Timothy J.H. Craddock of Klemchuk LLP.
The cases are OPTi Inc. v. VIA Technologies Inc. et al., case numbers 13-1670 and 14-1839, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
--Additional reporting by Matthew Bultman. Editing by Edrienne Su.
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