{"id":102,"date":"2018-03-28T15:53:30","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T19:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/?p=102"},"modified":"2018-03-28T15:53:30","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T19:53:30","slug":"alstom-grid-appeals-reverses-dominion-energys-patent-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/2018\/03\/28\/alstom-grid-appeals-reverses-dominion-energys-patent-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Alstom Grid Appeals, Reverses Dominion Energy\u2019s Patent Win"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Alstom Grid successfully reversed a jury verdict finding that Alstom infringed a Dominion Energy patent directed to smart grid management technology.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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 \u201cno reasonable jury\u201d could have found Alstom to infringe Dominion\u2019s patent.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In January 2015, Dominion sued Alstom for patent infringement in federal court in Pennsylvania. The patent at issue is Dominion\u2019s U.S. Patent No. 8,437,883 which is directed to smart grid monitoring and management. The \u2018883 Patent claims an invention of measuring voltages at numerous points in an electric grid and comparing those measured voltages to a \u201ctarget voltage band.\u201d Voltage adjustments are made to ensure electricity is delivered to consumers within the target voltage band. By making these adjustments, voltages across the entire electric grid can be optimized and overall grid efficiency is increased.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Dominion-Figure.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-103\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Dominion-Figure.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1285\" height=\"722\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Dominion-Figure.png 1285w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Dominion-Figure-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Dominion-Figure-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Dominion-Figure-1024x575.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dominion accused an Alstom software product called e-terra<em>distribution<\/em> of infringing the \u2018883 Patent. The product is installed as the distribution management system of Duke Energy\u2019s electric grid. The case went to trial, and a jury returned a verdict that Alstom\u2019s e-terra<em>distribution<\/em> software infringed the \u2018883 Patent. The jury found monetary damages of $486,000. The judge overseeing the trial decided that the infringement was \u201cwillful\u201d and doubled the monetary damages to $972,000. Critically, the judge also entered a permanent injunction against Alstom that would have required Alstom to cease the sale and operation of its e-terra<em>distribution<\/em> software or to reconfigure the software in a non-infringing manner.<\/p>\n<p>On appeal, Alstom argued that the jury verdict was erroneous because the e-terra<em>distribution<\/em> software does not compare measured voltages to a <u>target voltage band<\/u>. Instead, Alstom\u2019s software first calculates an expected voltage for each node of the electric grid. Voltages are then measured at each node, and the measured voltage is compared to the <u>calculated voltage<\/u> to determine what type of adjustments need to be made on the grid.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-104\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1323\" height=\"594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure.png 1323w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure-300x135.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure-768x345.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure-1024x460.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/03\/Alstom-Figure-604x270.png 604w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dominion\u2019s claimed invention requires a comparison of measured voltage to a target voltage band, whereas Alstom\u2019s product compares measured voltage to a calculated voltage. The Federal Circuit found that Alstom\u2019s product does not infringe Dominion\u2019s \u2018883 Patent because Alstom\u2019s calculated voltage is sufficiently different from the target voltage band claimed by Dominion. The Federal Circuit noted that even a smart grid expert hired by Dominion to testify in the case admitted that Alstom\u2019s software did compare a measured voltage to a target voltage band.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Circuit overturned the jury verdict, thus eliminating the award of monetary damages and the injunction against Alstom. The case will now be sent back to the federal court in Pennsylvania for final disposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/2018\/03\/28\/alstom-grid-appeals-reverses-dominion-energys-patent-win\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Alstom Grid Appeals, Reverses Dominion Energy\u2019s Patent Win&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[65,66,67,22,6,7,12,11],"ppma_author":[122],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-alstom-grid","tag-dominion-energy","tag-federal-circuit","tag-justus-getty","tag-patent","tag-patent-infringement","tag-smart-grid","tag-smart-meter"],"authors":[{"term_id":122,"user_id":226,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jlgetty","display_name":"Justus Getty","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/gettyjustus-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}