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Sun Microsystems Wins Patent Defense Verdict in Eastern District of Texas
The American Lawyer
April 29, 2009
For at least the second time this month, a defendant has won a patent infringement trial in federal district court in East Texas. A couple weeks ago, we reported on a directed verdict for ADT Security Services, which came even before ADT put on its defense. Now we have news that last Friday a jury in Marshall, Texas, cleared Sun Microsystems of a wide range of claims -- including patent infringement, trade secret theft and breach of contract -- made by a Versata Software, which was seeking more than $100 million in damages. Here's the jury's verdict form and here's a story about the verdict from eWeek.com.
Versata, formerly known as Triology Software, claimed that Sun stole its technology for the WC5 software configurator, which allows customers to modify all aspects of a product they want to buy and handles the complicated back-end operation. Sun had hired Versata to work on the software in 1998, but later gave the work to Oracle. Versata claimed that Sun took the information Versata produced to develop Sun's programs.
But after a 10-day trial, the jury deliberated for three hours and gave Versata a donut. We asked Sun's lead attorney, Jeff Randall of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, whether there was a particular moment during the trial that sealed Sun's win. He said no: "I think it was just a steady presentation of credible witnesses on our side and cross-examining their witnesses, [who] demonstrated inconsistencies and a lack of credibility," he explained.
Randall told us that while he's tried cases in tough jurisdictions, this was his first in the Eastern District of Texas. And although he doesn't have the faintest twang of a Texas accent -- and the other side relied on hometown lawyers from McKool Smith -- he insisted on trying the case without local counsel. "I grew up in a small town in Oregon," said Randall. "I feel comfortable communicating with those jurors." No argument here.
This article first appeared on The Am Law Litigation Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
