In August, lawyers from Ward, Smith & Hill and Covington & Burling secured a major jury verdict in a patent infringement case on behalf of an Israeli company. Elbit Systems LTD, the plaintiff is an international high technology company engaged in a wide range of defense, homeland security, and commercial programs. Elbit filed a suit against Hughes Network Systems, claiming that it infringed on a high-speed satellite communications patent.
The trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and the jury agreed with the plaintiff, awarding it $21.1 million in damages, exclusive of prejudgment interest and post-verdict royalties. The same jury also determined the patent’s validity (U.S. Patent No. 6,240,073) on August 7, 2017.
The case is Elbit Systems of America LLC et al. v. Hughes Network Systems LLC, case 2:15-cv-00037.
During the trial, the plaintiff was represented by Ward, Smith & Hill named partners Wesley Hill, Johnny Ward and associate Andrea Fair; and Covington & Burling LLP lawyers Kurt Calia, Ranganath Sudarshan, Wallace Lee, Patrick Flynn, Raj Paul, Grant Johnson, Udit Sood, and Yale Fu. Covington & Burling lawyers Chris Eppich, Jay Alexander, Andrea Reister, and Greg Nieberg comprised the Inter Partes Review team that defended the validity of the patent before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
“We are pleased the jury agreed that a patent by Elbit had been infringed by Hughes Network Systems,” said Mr. Hill. “The amount the jury awarded demonstrates they didn’t agree with Hughes’ counterclaims.”