Intellectual Ventures awarded $43 million in patent infringement trial

Fine will be shared by T-Mobile and Ericsson companies.

Intellectual Ventures, a Bellevue-based company, was awarded $43 million after telecom heavyweights T-Mobile and Ericsson were found guilty of infringing on company patents by a Texas jury on Feb. 8.

The jury awarded $34 million against T-Mobile and $9 million against Ericsson for their infringement on the company patents used for wireless services for the LTE network. The jury also determined T-Mobile and Ericsson failed to provide convincing evidence that Intellectual Ventures’ claims involving the patents were invalid. The case decision followed a one-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall.

T-Mobile and Ericsson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“We are grateful for the jurors’ attention in this case and their decision in favor of our client,” said Johnny Ward of Ward, Smith & Hill PLLC, who represented Intellectual Ventures. “This verdict shows you can’t infringe on another company’s patents and expect to get away with it.”

The patents-in-suit trial included U.S. Patents 6,628,629, 7,412,517 and RE46,206 owned by Intellectual Ventures for wireless transmissions. Intellectual Ventures is a global invention and investment business.