Context: Constellation Designs sued LG Electronics in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in December 2021, claiming infringement of several patents relevant to over-the-air broadcast technologies used in TV sets. In August 2023 the district court found LG had willfully infringed several claims of each remaining patent-in-suit, awarding Constellation almost $1.7 million in damages.
What’s new: The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today partially vacated and partially affirmed the district court’s judgment, touching on several issues around patent-eligibility and damages. Of particular note, however, was its affirmation of Constellation’s argument that infringement can be proven based on technical standard-related evidence for some elements, while simultaneously using non-standard-related evidence for other elements, of any single claim.
Direct impact: The case will now return to the Eastern District of Texas. One set of claims in Constellation’s asserted patents has failed the §101 eligibility test, but the other set of claims has survived. However, the damages award stands because LG had not previously requested the vacation of any award if the underlying merits were reversed only in part.
Wider ramifications: While this is obviously a U.S.-specific decision, the topic of “mixed” patent claims that feature both standard-related and non-standard-related elements will be at issue sooner or later in other key patent jurisdictions, including the Unified Patent Court.
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Court and counsel
Panel: Circuit Judge Alan D. Lourie, Circuit Judge Kara F. Stoll, and District Judge J. Paul Oetken (from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York) sitting by designation.
Constellation Designs was represented by Gibson Dunn’s Jeffrey B. Wall and Judson Owen Littleton; Caldwell Cassady & Curry’s Bradley Wayne Caldwell, Jason Dodd Cassady, Austin Curry, Aisha Mahmood Haley, Robert Seth Reich Jr., and James F. Smith; and Sullivan & Cromwell’s Daniel J. Richardson.
LG Electronics was represented by Fish & Richardson’s Robert Andrew Schwentker, Michael John Ballanco, Benjamin Joseph Christoff, Christian A. Chu, Michael J. McKeon, and Ashley Bolt.