News & Events

After nearly four years, the Firm won a complete and total victory for Qualcomm, a world leader in 3G, 4G and next-generation wireless technologies. On March 5, the Honorable Richard G. Andrews of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware granted a case-dispositive summary judgment motion the Firm filed for Qualcomm and its related company FLO TV, as well as seven other co-defendants, in a patent infringement case involving smartphones and interactive television.  The case was brought by EON Corp. IP Holdings, LLC, in 2010 and was scheduled to go to trial in several weeks.  EON accused our clients and the other defendants of infringing a patent over an interactive TV system that EON claimed to have invented as early as 1991.  Early on, the Simpson team spotted the issue that led to victory—every claim in the patent included a computer-implemented function that required additional software programming, but the patent was silent on how to write the programs.  Despite the fact that the patent had just survived two rounds of re-examination by the Patent Office, we still believed that this issue was a winner if presented properly.  We originally teed the issue up in the spring of 2013 while briefing the interpretation of the patent claims.  Then, while that briefing was pending, we filed for summary judgment.  EON argued that because no special programming was necessary, it did not have to disclose any software programs.  After hearing the parties’ arguments in January, Judge Andrews ordered an evidentiary hearing—a relatively rare event—to hear from their experts.  Over EON’s objections, we convinced the court to let us depose EON’s technical expert, and forced him to admit that each function in fact required additional programming.  After the evidentiary hearing, the Court ruled that the law “mandates the disclosure” of the software instructions, and, because he found them missing, ruled that all the claims were indefinite and therefore invalid.  Judge Andrews immediately entered judgment in favor of Qualcomm and closed the case.  

The Simpson Thacher team representing Qualcomm and FLO TV was led by Buzz Frahn, who deposed EON’s expert, argued the motions, and handled directs and crosses at the hearing, with critical assistance on the briefs and everything else from Counsel Victor Cole and associates Dan Kaplan, Jeff Danley and Mike Quick.