Marshall Division
Oct. 28
According to the original complaint, plaintiff Ei-Land is the owner by assignment of U.S. Patent No. 7,458,187. The '187 Patent was issued Dec. 2, 2008, for Force-Resisting Devices and Methods for Structures.
Ei-Land alleges that seven defendant companies are infringing the '187 Patent by making, using or selling the Steel Strong-Wall Shearwall.
Defendants named in the suit are Simpson Strong-Tie Co. and Simpson Manufacturing, Maddux Building Materials, Parker Lumber, Associated Truss & Lumber and Galveston Wholesale Building Materials.
The plaintiff claims that defendants Simpson Strong-Tie and Simpson Manufacturing have been aware of the '187 Patent, making their alleged infringement willful and objectively reckless.
Ei-Land is seeking adequate compensation no less than a reasonable royalty, a permanent injunction enjoining defendants from further infringement, costs, expenses, interest, enhanced damages, attorneys' fees and all other relief to which it may be entitled.
John J. Edmonds of Collins, Edmonds & Pogorzelski PLLC in Houston is lead counsel for the plaintiff. Melissa Smith of Gillam & Smith in Marshall is also representing the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward.
Case No. 2:09-cv-337-TJW
Oct. 30
Plaintiff Wolf Run Hollow claims to own the rights to U.S. Patent No. 6,115,817 issued Sept. 5, 2000, for Methods and Systems for Facilitating Transmission of Secure Messages Across Insecure Networks.
According to the complaint, several financial and banking institutions are infringing the '817 Patent by making, using and selling secure messaging systems and methods, including Web sites.
Wolf Run Hollow names Compass Bancshares, BancorpSouth Bank, Bank of Texas NA, Texas Capital Bancshares, ViewPoint Bank, WoodForest Financial Group, Peoples State Bank, First International Bank, First Federal Bank Texas and Community Bank as defendants.
The plaintiff alleges that defendants act as the "masterminds to direct or control users to request, transmit and/or receive secure messages via their secure messaging systems and methods."
Wolf Run Hollow is seeking compensatory damages, interest, treble damages, injunctive relief, attorneys' fees and other relief deemed just and proper. A jury trial is demanded.
William E. Davis III of The Davis Firm PC in Longview is attorney for the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward.
Case No. 2:09-cv-339-TJW
Plaintiff BJ Services is a corporation organized and existing under the state of Delaware with a principal place of business in Houston.
BJ Services claims to own the rights to four patents issued for a Coiled Tubing Wellbore Cleanout. The patents-in-suit are:
U.S. Patent No. 6,607,607 issued Aug. 19, 2003
U.S. Patent No. 6,923,871 issued Aug. 2, 2005
U.S. Patent No. 6,982,008 issued Jan. 3, 2006
U.S. Patent No. 7,377,283 issued May 27, 2008
According to the complaint, in order to produce oil and/or gas, wells are drilled into the earth to tap into subterranean formations. Previously trapped oil or gas then migrates to the wellbore and is transported to the surface.
"One problem that has been encountered is that the wellbore can become clogged with particulates such as sand, pebbles and rock chips (known as 'fill'), which can decrease or stop the production of oil and/or gas," the complaint states. "The Patents-in-Suit involve a new method of removing fill from a wellbore."
The patents-in-suit involve coiled tubing services for wellbore fill removal that utilize an optimum coiled tubing pull-out-of-hole (POOH) speed while sweeping solids up the wellbore.
The plaintiff claims the new method is more effective in horizontal wells than other methods of removing fill from a wellbore.
BJ Services alleges defendants Schlumberger NV (Schlumberger Ltd.) and Schlumberger Technology Corp., located in Houston, are infringing the patents-in-suit through its services including PowerCLEAN.
The plaintiff claims it has attempted to resolve the matter by providing written notice to Schlumberger of the similarities between its patents and the PowerCLEAN service.
"In February 2008, representatives of BJ met with representatives of Schlumberger in an attempt to resolve this dispute," the complaint states. "Despite BJ's attempts to resolve this dispute out of court, Schlumberger has not ceased offering its infringing services or been willing to pay a reasonable royalty for its use of BJ's patented inventions."
The plaintiff is seeking a permanent injunction enjoining Schlumberger, compensatory damages, interest, treble damages, attorneys' fees and other just and equitable relief. A jury trial is demanded.
Willliam C. Slusser of Slusser Wilson & Partridge LLP is lead attorney for the plaintiff.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward.
Case No. 2:09-cv-340-TJW
Nov. 3
Plaintiff WebMap Technologies is a Texas limited liability company with its principal place of business in Frisco. The company claims to be the exclusive licensee of U.S. Patent No. 6,772,142 issued Aug. 3, 2004, for a Method and Apparatus for Collecting and Expressing Geographically-Referenced Data.
WebMap alleges that more than a dozen companies are infringing the '142 Patent through Web sites using interactive mapping functions.
The defendant companies named in the suit are City Accommodations Networks, CitySearch, Expedia, IAC/InteractiveCorp., Google Inc., Microsoft, The Washington Post Co., Ticketmaster, Travelocity, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!, YellowPages.com, Yelp! Inc. and Zagat Survey.
"Upon information and belief, at least Google has been aware of the '142 Patent for some time prior to the filing of this suit, and at least Google's infringing activities have been willful and objectively reckless since receiving notice of the patent," the original complaint states.
WebMap Technologies is seeking a permanent injunction enjoining defendants, damages, costs, expenses, interest, enhanced damages, attorneys' fees and other relief to which it may be entitled. A jury trial is demanded.
John J. Edmonds of Collins, Edmonds & Pogorzelski PLLC in Houston is lead counsel for WebMap Technologies, with Andrew Spangler of Spangler Law PC in Longview.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge T. John Ward and referred to Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham.
Case No. 2:09-cv-343-CE