US District Court Rejects $847m 5G Patent Infringement Jury Verdict Against Verizon

US District Court Rejects $847m 5G Patent Infringement Jury Verdict Against Verizon

Grants re-trial, setting 06 December as the date of hearing

Telecommunications giant Verizon has convinced the US District Court, Eastern District of Texas to grant a retrial after a jury in June ordered it to pay a patent holding company $847 million for patent infringement.

District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ordered a retrial concluding that the jury's verdict was "against the great weight of the evidence to such a material degree that a new trial is necessary."

The jury had decided that Verizon infringed two patents owned by the patent holding company General Access Solutions (GAS) and relating to wireless access devices in 5G technology.

Though Gilstrap stated having “great respect for a jury's verdict", he added that the issues raised by Verizon warranted a new trial on the case, including issues of infringement, invalidity and damage.

Verizon had stressed not infringing any asserted claims and that all those were invalid and lacked written description and enablement.

Dallas-based GAS had filed a lawsuit against Verizon in 2022 for infringing two patents that cover key inventions of the 5G technology – ‘beamforming’ and ‘hot spotting’. While beamforming makes 5G connections more focused toward a receiving device, hot spotting is where people can access wireless internet with a mobile device.

The May 2024 court rulings during the pre-trial conference and the original June 2024 jury trial would apply to the new trial, including the pre-admission of all trial exhibits.

Verizon was represented by a Gibson Dunn & Crutcher team led by Partner Josh Krevitt.

Bartlit Beck led by Glen Eric Summers appeared for General Access Solutions.