Raymond P. Niro
Luke L. Dauchot
A federal jury has rejected claims that Samsung Electronics should pay millions of dollars for allegedly infringing on a patent for a programming technique it uses in its Android-based devices.
But the battle isn’t over.
U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly set a hearing for Wednesday to discuss the form the final judgment should take after last week’s verdict.
Lawyers for Cascades Computer Innovation LLC, which filed the suit, have asked Kennelly to consider an emergency motion for a mistrial and to impose sanctions on Samsung.
Before jury deliberations began, the motion says, each side in the case gave jurors exhibits that were admitted during the trial.
The motion alleges Samsung electronically submitted to jurors five exhibits that were altered, one that had not been used at trial and another that included confidential attorney-client communications.
Samsung is also accused in the motion of giving jurors paper versions of the documents that included more material that had been excluded.
Saying it’s impossible “to speculate what effect the improper materials may have had on the jury,” the motion asks for a new trial.
The lead attorney for Cascades is Raymond P. Niro of Niro, Haller & Niro Ltd.
“We believe in the jury system and the jury process,” Niro said, “but when people don’t play by the rules, you can adversely impact the judicial process.”
The lead attorneys for Samsung are Luke L. Dauchot of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago and Marc H. Cohen of the firm’s Palo Alto, Calif., office. They could not be reached for comment.
In his closing argument at trial, Dauchot noted Samsung is much larger than Cascades.
Samsung, however, refused to settle with Cascades, he said, and instead opted to pay the expense of defending itself against the allegations of patent infringement.
“Yes, we’re successful,” Dauchot told jurors. “But that’s not a sin.
“And it certainly doesn’t mean that we ought to pay $50 million to a company that sends us a demand letter on the basis of accusations that aren’t even supported by a product analysis … and a patent that’s been analyzed for $350.”
Cascades, which is based in Northbrook, sued the South Korea-based Samsung in 2011.
The suit alleged Samsung is infringing on a feature incorporated into Google’s Android operating system that allows code designed for one particular type of programming to be used in a different type of programming.
Cascades owns the exclusive license and the right to sue for infringement of the patent, the suit alleged.
It alleged Samsung is infringing on the patent by manufacturing and selling smartphones and tablets that use the Dalvik JIT Compiler, which is part of several versions of Android operating systems.
The devices using the patented method include the Nexus S cellphone, the suit alleged.
The suit didn’t seek a specific amount of damages. In his closing argument, Niro contended that royalties to award Cascades could be up to $13 million if the jury found that Samsung infringed the patent.
The case is Cascades Computer Innovation LLC v. Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., et al., No. 11 C 4574.