LG, Lenovo Hit With Wi-LAN Patent Suits Over 4G TechBy Bonnie Eslinger
Law360, Los Angeles (February 23, 2017, 8:40 PM EST) -- Canadian technology development and licensing company Wi-LAN Inc. filed suits against LG Electronics Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. in California federal court for allegedly infringing fourth-generation tech patents.
The two complaints, one against LG filed Wednesday and one against Lenovo filed Thursday, allege the companies are willfully infringing four of Wi-LAN's wireless technology patents.
“Wi-LAN has made numerous efforts to license the unauthorized use of its wireless technologies by the defendants, but defendants have consistently refused to take a license, choosing to use Wi-LAN’s 4G technologies without paying anything for that right,” Wi-LAN’s suit against LG states.
Before initiating litigation, Wi-LAN made “substantial efforts” to get the defendants to license its intellectual property, which is used in the companies' 4G long-term evolution mobile devices, according to both suits.
“During the spring of 2016, Wi-LAN contacted the defendants to engage in licensing the patents-in-suit relating to LTE and 4G wireless technology,” the suit against LG states. “Defendants initially expressed interest. But despite Wi-LAN’s repeated efforts, defendants failed to take a license.”
The patents-in-suit in both cases are U.S. Patent Nos. 8,787,924 and 9,497,743, which are titled "Methods and systems for transmission of multiple modulated signals over wireless networks.” The two other patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent No. 8,867,351, titled “Apparatus, system and method for the transmission of data with different QoS attributes,” and U.S. Patent No. 9,226,320, titled “Preallocated random access identifiers.”
The lawsuits seek judgments in favor of Wi-LAN that its patents have been infringed, an order blocking continued use of the technologies, compensation for the use of intellectual property, and punitive damages.
According to the complaints, which are nearly identical, Wi-LAN’s wireless technologies and patents have been licensed by the majority of companies in the wireless industry.
“Many of defendants’ major competitors in the mobile device industry, including Samsung, HTC, Nokia and BlackBerry, have licensed Wi-LAN’s wireless technologies and patents,” the suits state.
Over the years, Wi-LAN has filed patent suits against a slew of companies, including Vizio Inc., Sharp Electronics, Toshiba Corp., HTC Corp., Apple Inc., Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc., Ericsson Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Acer Inc.
In one of those cases, Wi-LAN alleged infringement of its wireless patents by Apple. First filed in the Southern District of Florida, the case was transferred to California federal court, where U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw granted Apple summary judgment, which was affirmed by the Federal Circuit. In late December, Wi-LAN petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision, according to the company's January status report filed in the high court.
Last month, the Canadian company saw some success in its suit against Ericsson, when the Federal Circuit unwound a lower court’s ruling that had freed Ericsson from Wi-LAN’s infringement claims on three patents, concluding in a split decision that the trial judge had done a jury’s job by weighing evidence from each party before ruling in Ericsson’s favor.
Wi-LAN had also sued Cisco Systems Inc. in Canada in 2004 for allegedly infringing an IEEE U.S. patent and two others. The companies settled the case in December 2005, with Cisco purchasing some Wi-LAN patents and a license. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Representatives for Wi-LAN did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment on the two new lawsuits. A spokesman for LG told Law360 that the company does not generally comment on such pending legal matters. Representatives for Lenovo were not immediately reachable for comment.
Wi-LAN is represented by Victor M. Felix of Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch LLP and Leslie V. Payne, Eric J. Enger and Christopher M. First of Heim Payne & Chorush LLP.
Counsel information for LG and for Lenovo was not available Thursday.
The cases are Wi-LAN Inc. et al. v. LG Electronics Inc. et al., case number 3:17-cv-00358, and Wi-LAN Inc. et al. v. Lenovo Group Ltd. et al., case number 3:17-cv-00365, both in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
--Editing by Edrienne Su.
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