Marshall Division, Eastern District of Texas
March 19
Plaintiffs Satellite Tracking of People, aka STOP, and Michelle Enterprises make and sell tamper-resistant tracking devices which use GPS and cellular technology to track the location of criminal offenders.
On Nov. 6, 2007, U.S. Patent No. Re 39,909 for a Tracking System for Locational Tracking of Monitored Persons was issued to inventor John E. Taylor. Michelle Enterprises claims to be the owner by assignment of the '909 Patent with STOP as the exclusive licensee.
The plaintiffs allege that defendants Pro Tech Monitoring, Omnilink and Secure Alert are infringing the '909 Patent.
The original complaint names the Pro Tech Smart One miniature tracking device, the Omnilink OM 200 and the Secure Alert TrackerPAL as products that infringe the '909 Patent.
The plaintiffs allege that the infringement has been willful and deliberate.
Plaintiffs are seeking treble damages, interest, expenses, attorneys' fees and other just and equitable relief.
Elizabeth DeRieux of Brown McCarroll LLP in Longview is lead attorney for the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward.
Case No. 2:08-cv-116-TJW
Plaintiff Klausner Technologies claims to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 5,283,818 for a Telephone Answering Device Linking Displayed Data with Recorded Audio Message. The patent was issued Feb. 1, 1994, and reinstated March 18, 2008.
Klausner alleges that defendants Apple and AT&T Mobility are infringing the '818 Patent.
"Plaintiff has been damaged by defendants' infringement of the '818 Patent and will suffer additional irreparable damage and impairment of the value of its patent rights unless defendants are enjoined from continuing to infringe the '818 Patent," the complaint states.
Klausner is seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages, enhanced damages, costs, attorneys' fees, interest and other relief.
S. Calvin Capshaw of Brown McCarroll LLP is representing the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District T. John Ward and referred to Magistrate Charles Everingham.
Case No. 2:08-cv-117-TJW-CE
March 20
Plaintiff IPCO claims to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 7,054,271 for a Wireless Network System and Method for Providing Same issued May 30, 2006.
The plaintiff alleges defendants Centerpoint Energy, Itron Inc. and Eaton Corp. have infringed the '271 Patent. Named in the suit as infringing products and services are Centerpoint's Advanced Metering System, Itron's Open Way System and Eaton's Home Heartbeat System.
IPCO is seeking compensatory damages, treble damages, injunctive relief, interest, costs and attorneys' fees.
Joe Kendall of Provost Umphrey's Dallas office is representing the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge David Folsom.
Case No. 2:08-cv-120-DF
March 21
Plaintiff Alexa Internet claims to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 6,282,548 for Automatically Generating and Displaying Metadata as Supplemental Information Concurrently with the Web Page There Being No Link Between Web Page and Metadata.
The '548 Patent was issued to inventor Michael G. Burner and others on Aug. 28, 2001, and assigned to Alexa.
Alexa alleges that Girafa is infringing the '548 Patent through its Girafa Toolbar and Girafa Thumbnail Service.
The plaintiff claims it will continue to suffer injury to its business and property rights in an amount to be determined at trial.
Alexa also claims the infringement is willful and deliberate.
Alexa is seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages, attorneys' fees, interest, costs, and other just and proper relief.
Charles Ainsworth of Parker Bunt & Ainsworth PC in Tyler is representing the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward and referred to Magistrate Charles Everingham.
Case No. 2:08-cv-121-TJW-CE
March 24
Plaintiff MHL Tek claims it owns the rights to three patents for monitoring tires. The patents are U.S. Patent Nos. 5,663,496; 5,713,516; and 5,741,966.
The plaintiff alleges that defendants GM, Saturn, Ford Motor Co., Land Rover NA, Volvo, Chrysler and Mercedes Benz are infringing the MHL patents. The complaint alleges that the infringement has been willful and deliberate.
MHL is seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages, treble damages, interest, costs, attorneys' fees and other relief.
Sam Baxter of McKool Smith PC in Marshall is lead attorney for the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward and referred to Magistrate Charles Everingham.
Case No. 2:08-cv-125-TJW-CE
March 25
The plaintiffs in this patent infringement suit are Frances Morris of Dallas, Elizabeth A. Morris Child's Trust, Michael K. Morris Child's Trust, David K. Morris Child's Trust and the Morris Family Trust.
Plaintiffs claim to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. Re 39,989 for a Method and Apparatus for Transmission of Analog and Digital issued Jan. 1, 2008. The '989 Patent is a reissue of U.S. Patent No. 6,230,010 issued Dec. 25, 2001.
The original complaint names 15 defendants, including Acer, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants infringe the '989 Patent through manufacture and sales of desktop and laptop computer systems.
The Morris family is seeking compensation of no less than reasonable royalty, interest, attorneys' fees, costs and other just and proper relief.
Edward Goldstein of Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg LLP in Houston is representing the plaintiffs.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward and referred to Magistrate Charles Everingham.
Case No. 2:08-cv-127-TJW-CE