Marshall Division
March 20
Plaintiff Traffic is a Texas limited liability company claiming to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 6,785,606 issued Aug. 31, 2004, for a System for Providing Traffic Information.
The plaintiff alleges AT&T, Research In Motion, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Volvo and Volvo of Dallas have infringed the '606 Patent by making, using, selling or causing others to use traffic information systems.
Traffic Information LLC is seeking compensatory damages, injunctive relief, interest, attorneys' fees, costs and other just and proper relief.
Attorneys from Polasek, Quisenberry & Errington LLP in Bellaire; Capshaw DeRieux LLP in Longview; and Ireland, Carroll & Kelley PC in Tyler are representing the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward and referred to Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham for pretrial proceedings.
Case No. 2:09-cv-083-TJW-CE
March 23
Plaintiff OLA is embroiled in a patent dispute over an online service to assist home builders.
According the complaint, OLA owns the rights by assignment from Bruce Fogelson to U.S. Patent Nos. 7,076,455 and '7,254,553. OLA claims its Builders Online Assistant presents options in home style and is the confidential, proprietary and non-public business information and/or trade secret.
The plaintiff claims the information was not public until the application for the '553 Patent was published July 25, 2002.
In January 2000, Fogelson attended an International Builders' Show where he visited with several builders, passed out business cards and invited attendees to visit his Web site. The suit says Fogelson created HomeBuilderShowroom.com to allow visitors information about his Builder's Online Assistant. The Web site gave limited access to a demo of the Builder's Online Assistant designs and methods.
Web visitors were required to agree to be bound by a confidentiality agreement, and site stated "You are allowed to visit the demo to consider a business opportunity with us."
Prior to July 25, 2002, OLA also made presentations to members of the Builder Homesite Inc./New Home Technologies consortiums. Members relevant to the suit include Beazer, Centex, Weekley, KB Homes, Lennar, Pulte, Standard Pacific, Toll Brothers, Georgia Pacific, Honeywell, Kohler, Overhead Door, Owens Corning, Square D Co., Therma-Tru, Weyerhaeuser, Whirlpool and York International.
"At that time, BHI did not have any products similar to what became the '455 and '533 Patents and it did not then intend to create such a similar product," the 67 page complaint states.
The suit gives pages of specific meetings and email correspondence between OLA and many of the home building companies.
The complaint alleges that in May 2000, Austin-based BHI/NHT gathered to discuss OLA's products, and then created its own site "by using OLA's confidential … information."
BHI/NHT Joint Enterprises created Envision, a Web-based product that functions as a virtual design center where home buyers can select their options for their new home, and launched the product in September 2004.
Home building companies began using Envision and joining the consortium in August 2005.
OLA alleges that defendants committed not only patent infringement, but also wrongful acts, conspiracy, breach of contract, fraud, restraint of trade and violations of the Illinois Trade Secrets Act.
The plaintiff is seeking injunctive relief, actual and exemplary damages and treble damages, costs, attorneys' fees and other relief.
Scott Clearman of the Clearman Law Firm PLLC in Houston and Matthew Prebeg of Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg LLP in Houston are representing the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward.
Case No. 2:09-cv-082-TJW
Plaintiff Chrimar Systems, doing business as CMS Technologies, claims to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 7,457,250 issued Nov. 25, 2008, for a System for Communication with Electronic Equipment.
Chrimar alleges defendants Garrettcom Inc., Edgewater Networks Inc. and Neteon Technologies Inc. are infringing the '250 Patent.
The plaintiff is seeking injunctive relief, compensatory damages, treble damages, costs, expenses and attorneys' fees.
Melissa Smith of Gillam & Smith LLP in Marshall is lead attorney for the plaintiff. Richard Hoffman of Reising Ethington PC in Troy, Mich., is of counsel.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward.
Case No. 2:09-cv-085-TJW
March 24
Plaintiff Accolade is a Texas limited liability company claiming to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 7,463,298 issued Dec. 9, 2008, for a Method and Apparatus for Detecting Camera Sensor Intensity Saturation.
Accolade alleges the defendants incorporated Accolade's patented technology in products and services including the Micron MI220 image sensor, Aptina MI9D014 CMOS image sensor, Aptina MI9D012 CMOS image sensor and other products for detecting camera sensor intensity. Such sensors are incorporated into various consumer products including cell phones like the Apple iPhone.
The plaintiff is seeking an injunction, compensatory damages, interest, attorneys' fees, costs and other just and proper relief.
Carl R. Roth of the Roth Law Firm PC in Marshall is representing the plaintiff.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Marshall and has been referred to Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham for pretrial proceedings.
Case No. 2:09-cv-086-TJW-CE
Lufkin Division
March 24
Austin based Affinity Labs claims to hold the rights to three patents for applications used in mobile devices.
The patents-in-suit are:
Affinity alleges Apple infringes its patents through the iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch, software applications for the phone through Apple's App Store and iTunes software applications.
The plaintiff is seeking an injunction, compensatory and treble damages, costs and other proper relief.
Thomas W. Sankey of Duane Morris LLP in Houston is lead attorney for the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Ron Clark.
Case No. 9:09-cv-047-RC