Alstom Grid Appeals, Reverses Dominion Energy’s Patent Win

  • Alstom Grid successfully reversed a jury verdict finding that Alstom infringed a Dominion Energy patent directed to smart grid management technology.
  • The appeal was heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which is the federal appeals court that takes all appeals of U.S. patent cases.

Alstom Grid LLC won an appeal at the Federal Circuit after last year suffering a patent trial loss to Dominion Energy, Inc. over smart grid management technology. In overturning the earlier jury verdict, the Federal Circuit stated that “no reasonable jury” could have found Alstom to infringe Dominion’s patent. Continue reading “Alstom Grid Appeals, Reverses Dominion Energy’s Patent Win”

TESCO Moves Confidentiality Case to Pennsylvania

  • To hear a lawsuit between parties, a court must have personal jurisdiction over a defendant. Personal jurisdiction requires “minimum contacts” between a defendant and a state such that the defendant “should reasonably anticipate being haled into court there.”
  • Electric meter company TESCO used a lack of minimum contacts with the state of Tennessee to have litigation with plaintiff Technology for Energy Corporation moved to a more convenient court in Pennsylvania.

One of the first questions a defendant often asks when they’ve been sued is this: can I get the case moved to a more favorable court? Each court may have different administrative rules, different law to be applied in the case, and judges with different backgrounds. In these differences, litigants and their counsel often seek to find an advantage by trying to move cases among the various courts. Continue reading “TESCO Moves Confidentiality Case to Pennsylvania”

Varentec Dodges Gridco Requests for Inter Partes Review

  • An inter partes review is an administrative proceeding that asks the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate a U.S. Patent. These reviews are commonly used by patent litigation defendants to challenge the validity at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of patent claims that have been asserted against them in a U.S. District Court.
  • After Varentec sued Gridco for patent infringement, Gridco requested inter partes reviews for the asserted patents. However, Gridco’s requests were denied.

Grid management solutions company Varentec, Inc., dodged a pair of requests by rival Gridco, Inc. to invalidate Varentec’s U.S. patents this week. Gridco had challenged Varentec’s patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), an administrative tribunal within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that hears claims against the validity of U.S. patents.   The PTAB denied Gridco’s requests for review of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,014,867 and 9,293,922. These related patents are owned by the Santa Clara-based Varentec and are directed to optimizing power delivery to consumers on an electrical grid with significant distributed generation. Continue reading “Varentec Dodges Gridco Requests for Inter Partes Review”

Itron Earns Review of Smart Meter Patent

  • An inter partes review is an administrative proceeding that asks the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate a U.S. Patent. These reviews are commonly used by patent litigation defendants in an attempt to invalidate patent claims that have been asserted against them.
  • Itron requested inter partes review of a patent owned and asserted by Smart Meter Technologies. Itron’s request was granted.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has agreed to review the validity of a smart utility meter patent owned by Smart Meter Technologies, Inc. (“SMT”). The validity challenge was filed by Itron, Inc., a manufacturer of smart utility meters and provider of grid monitoring and control technologies. In a decision dated October 11, 2017, the Board found that Itron had brought forth sufficient evidence of the patent’s invalidity to warrant a review proceeding.

Continue reading “Itron Earns Review of Smart Meter Patent”

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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