Finnegan Henderson Client Wins Major Victories

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP announced two major victories for client U.S. Philips Corporation, against KXD Technology, Inc., et al.; and International Norcent Technology, Inc., et al., respectively. In both cases, which were in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, there was a finding of willful infringement of Philips’ patents directed to DVD technology and Philips was awarded monetary damages. The Norcent decision is one of the first willful infringement verdicts to be handed down by a jury since the landmark Seagate case, in which the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals introduced new standards for determining willful infringement.

In orders issued on September 18, 2007 (U.S. Philips v. KXD Technology, Inc., et al.), Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edward Rafeedie ruled in favor of Philips, awarding more than $91 million in trebled damages and interest, a permanent injunction, and a finding that Philips is entitled to attorneys' fees and litigation expenses. This judgment was entered against the KXD and Astar group of defendants for the sale and importation of DVD players incorporating Philips’ patented technology.

In a separate patent infringement action tried before a jury, with Judge Rafeedie presiding (U.S. Philips v. International Norcent Technology, et al.), the jury returned a verdict on September 5, 2007, finding the Norcent defendants liable for willful patent infringement and awarded Philips $12.8 million. The jury found that the Norcent defendants infringed all four asserted claims from two Philips patents related to DVD players.

At issue was Norcent and KXD’s infringement of two Philips patents, Nos. 5,677,903 (“the ’903 patent”) and 5,463,607 (“the ‘607 patent”), which are part of a group of patents licensed by Philips to third parties for the production, importation and sale of DVD players. Both KXD and Norcent were found liable for willfully infringing these patents, and held liable for sales of units incorporating technology protected under the ‘903 and ‘607 patents. In both cases, Finnegan Henderson, assisted by local counsel Keats, McFarland, and Wilson, vigorously defended Philips’ intellectual property rights to its industry-standard DVD patents, as well as its licensees’ rights to fair competition.

“These wins for Philips are significant decisions in the enforcement of patents directed to electronics standards,” said Frank DeCosta, III, a partner at Finnegan Henderson who led the trial team. “Some companies attempt to illegally forgo licensing technologies to sell infringing products at a reduced cost. The more than 300 licensees of Philips’ DVD technologies that take the proper steps to respect intellectual property can suffer a competitive disadvantage when such infringement is allowed to take place. Philips took action to protect both its own intellectual property and the interests of its licensees. This is a huge victory for not only for Philips, but also for other industries that depend on standards-based patent licensing programs.”

About Finnegan Henderson

With 300 intellectual property lawyers, Finnegan Henderson is the largest IP law firm in the world. From offices in Washington, DC; Atlanta, Georgia; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Palo Alto, California; Reston, Virginia; Brussels, Belgium; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tokyo, Japan; the firm practices all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing and litigation. We also represent clients on IP issues related to international trade, portfolio management, the Internet, e-commerce, government contracts, antitrust and unfair competition. For additional information on the firm, please visit www.finnegan.com.