TYLER – Despite a final judgment entered Sept. 30 in a lawsuit originally filed in April 2012 that pitted NobelBiz, Inc. against defendants Global Connect, LLC and TCN, Inc. in a patent infringement battle, the defendants have appealed numerous orders filed in the four-year life of the case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reactivated appeals Oct. 31.
In its original lawsuit, NobelBiz said its patent allows a calling party in one geographical location to originate a call to a receiving party in another geographical location, with the caller ID appearing to the receiving party as a telephone number from his or her area code, instead of the calling party’s actual telephone number.
NobelBiz said its trademarked LocalTouch system is designed to enhance the effectiveness of outbound teleservice call centers, such as collection agencies, by increasing contact rates between calling parties and receiving parties.
According to the lawsuit, Global Connect, a hosted dialer and web-based voice messaging system provider, also uses a system that modifies the caller ID information, if necessary, so that the caller ID information appears to be from the same geographical region as the receiving party.
NobelBiz alleged Global Connect “practices each and every limitation of the claims” of NobelBiz’s patent and “is knowingly and willfully, directly and indirectly infringing the ‘122 patent by offering to sell and selling defendant’s service in the United States.”
TCN merged with Global Connect in December 2015.
Following a September 2015 trial, a jury ruled in favor of NobelBiz in its infringement claims, finding that the plaintiff was entitled to $566,395 in connection with Global Connect’s infringement of two patents and $169,024 in connection with TCN’s infringement of those patents.
On Oct. 28, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted an injunction that requires Global Connect and TCN to stop manufacturing, importing, using, selling and/or offering for sale in the United States any caller identification modification service, system, or product having the ability to modify caller ID information based on a call recipient’s locality.
The court said the injunction covers TCN’s “local caller ID” service and Global Connect’s “regional caller ID” and “enhanced caller ID” services.
The defendants appealed the court orders entered between 2013 and October 2015 relating to claim construction, exclusion of portions of expert reports, a jury verdict entered Sept. 16, 2016, a bill of costs, calculation of pre-judgment and post-judgment interest and sealed motions for permanent injunctions. The defendants also appealed the final judgment entered Sept. 30.
In the pre-judgment and post-judgment interest order entered Oct. 27, the court ruled that $117,574 in pre-judgment interest had accrued for Global Connect through Sept. 30, and $28,060 had accrued for TCN. Post-judgment interest will accrue at $614.76 per month for Global Connect and $180 per month for TCN, the court ruled.
According to the second amended notice of appeal filed Oct. 31 with the district court, the defendants originally filed a notice of appeal in October 2015. The first amended notice of appeal was filed Jan. 29, 2016. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had deactivated the appeals Oct. 27, 2015.
The appeals court reactivated the appeal Oct. 31 and gave Global Connect and TCN 60 days to file their opening briefs.