Trial Report. Yesterday, the judge gave 30 minutes for opening, 12-1/2 hours per side. Therefore, Markman hearing should be over Thursday, possibly with closing arguments Friday. Qualcomm made some objections to documents; judge took them under advisement.
The courtroom is packed. Ericy on the left; the last two rows of the courtroom are nothing but Ericy document boxes. Ericy has more folks there than Qualcomm. I sat next to a young patent lawyer from MOT, who came in from Illinois to observe. The special master sits to the judge's right; he is the only one who asked questions. I recognized Ericy's lawyers from a prominent Dallas firm. I didn't recognize any of Qualcomm's lawyers.
One of Ericy's experts was on the stand all morning, Dr. Cox. Boringly the questioning was primarily the meaning of each term, phrase in two patent applications. The focus was on a 1988 patent, reissue 36,017*** and a 1992 patent 5,088,108 (might have been 5,008,108, my notes aren't good on that). Essentially, Ericy is arguing that these patents cover any cell phone system and therefore cover cdma. At various points the Qualcomm spectator side would smile as they apparently think they saw a hole in the guy's testimony.
IT WAS REALLY BORING. I left at the noon break, because I could be more than half way back to my office before they reconvened at 1:30.
The most interesting thing. From my notes and these are almost direct quotes: Question, what was the state of cdma in 1988 when this patent was applied for? Answer, "There was no active developmental effort of a cdma system. ... The GSM trials were not successful and so [cdma] was abandoned.... The U.S. began cdma, originally proposed by Qualcomm in 1989-90 ...."
I am very busy this week and doubt if I will get back, but if I do it would be Thursday. |
