Verizon hit with whopping $847M verdict for infringing 5G and hotspot patents

In one of the most massive patent verdicts in legal history, a federal jury in East Texas has ordered cellular giant Verizon to pay patentholder General Access Solutions $847 million. That's a $583 million "reasonable royalty" for infringing US Patent No 7,230,931 (the '931) patent, and $264 million for infringing the other, 9 …

[Pascal Monett]

"The judicial process is ongoing"

Sounds like an appeal if I ever heard of one.

Obviously.

Make 'em squirm, I say.

[Snowy]

What did they make

They purchased the kit off Ericsson, they where the ones who infringed the patents?

[Snake]

Re: What did they make

Knowing American ISP's / carriers, it would be reasonable to believe that Verizon had Ericsson make custom kit for Verizon's systems based on Verizon's desired specs. Verizon is also the only defendant within the U.S. Courts jurisdiction.

[mostly average]

non-practicing entity

You mean patent troll. If they're buying patents and not doing anything with them except litigating, then that's a troll. Don't get me wrong, I hate Verizon. I also hate patent trolls.

[isdnip]

Re: non-practicing entity

Yes, this is one of those hard cases where it makes Verizon look good. The East Texas court exists pretty much as a haven for patent trolls. The Patent and Trademark Office hands out garbage patents like candy on Halloween, East Texas grants crazy judgements on them, and then the Appeals court strikes it down. Not the worst of American jurisprudence (as of today) but still a farce.

[Henry Wertz 1]

Re: non-practicing entity

This. Texas is full of rednecks and yokels, including the judges,. These jokers in East Texas side with the patent trolls over 90% of the time. The transcripts on some are wild, the judges there have zero understanding of technology and seem to make no effort to either, if the patent troll shows up they win the case.

[MachDiamond]

Re: non-practicing entity

"These jokers in East Texas side with the patent trolls over 90% of the time."

The court is in Texas, but it's a Federal Court, not "local" per se. The judges that sit on those courts are appointed by the Federal Government.

[MachDiamond]

Re: non-practicing entity

"Don't get me wrong, I hate Verizon. I also hate patent trolls."

So no matter which side loses, you're still happy?

[Anonymous Coward]

The patent trolling capital of the Eastern District of Texas

“Dallas-based non-practicing entity General Access, which acquired the patents from original inventor Raze Technologies”

Original inventor «snort»

US Patent No 7,230,931: “Wireless access system using selectively adaptable beam forming ..”

[Scoured Frisbee]

Re: The patent trolling capital of the Eastern District of Texas

794 [https://patents.google.com/patent/US9426794B2/en?oq=9%2c426%2c794]

Dated April 20 2001, eventually.

Interestingly I believe I was already doing at least claims 1-3 in public on consumer hardware in 2001 - that is, tethering my Thinkpad to my Qualcomm candy bar via the serial port and using it as a wireless modem. I have some vague recollection that there was a virtual uplink, but maybe I was dialing the Mindspring backup line at 2400 or 9600 bps. It was slow but SSH is low data anyway, just doing note taking and admin stuff on my home computer. That would have been on Verizon; full circle I guess.

I don't have much to say about 931, I learned a decent amount about TDD at University in the late 90s but of course we didn't go into great detail about broadcasting a bit mask to advertise settings like the claims, maybe that's not obvious to practitioners in EDTX.

[Matthew "The Worst Writer on the Internet" Saroff]

Judge Ronnie Jockstrap?

One of the worst patent trolls on the Federal bench?

Hoocoodanode?