Sitting out the latest trial between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. seems to have worked out fine for patent litigator Charles Verhoeven of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. While his colleagues were representing Samsung without him, Verhoeven nabbed a $283 million plaintiffs verdict in a dustup between two satellite technology companies.
After an impressive two weeks of deliberation, a federal jury in San Diego returned a verdict on Thursday that Space Systems/Loral infringed on patents belonging to Quinn Emanuel client ViaSat Inc. Jurors also determined that SS/L violated nondisclosure agreements by sharing the technology at issue with one of ViaSat’s fiercest competitors, Hughes Communications Inc., a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (neither Hughes nor EchoStar were named as defendants). The jury ordered SS/L to pay ViaSat $181 million on the patent infringement claims and $102 million for breach of contract.
