Nokia, Sprint, and Verizon beat network patent suits

Telecom giants  Nokia,  Sprint, and  Verizon have been cleared of patent infringement allegations from  Traxcell Technologies, the  US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled yesterday.

Traxcell claimed that the companies’ technology infringed four of its US patents related to self-optimising wireless networks (SON), but the  United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas cleared the infringement claims.

In a pair of  precedential decisions handed down on October 12, a three-judge panel affirmed the verdict following claim construction and discovery.

The three patents-in-suit; US patent number 8,977,284, 9,510,320, and 9,642,024 are directed to “corrective actions” to improve communications between a wireless device (for instance, a phone) and the network.

Traxcell argued that Nokia’s Eden-NET product infringed on the three patents, whereas targeted Verizon’s implementation of Ericsson’s C-SON technology and Sprint’s usage of Samsung’s dSON technology.

According to the Federal Circuit decisions, Traxcell’s arguments relied on claim construction in the patents, but the panel was unpersuaded by Traxcell’s interpretation of the claim language, upholding the Texas judge’s prior claim analysis and non-infringement rulings on all counts.

Sprint and Verizon also argued that many of Traxcell’s arguments were forfeited as it raised them too late at the trial court, but as the circuit panel affirmed the non-infringement rulings, this was not addressed.

Traxcell filed complaints against Nokia in January 2017, claiming that it infringed on the ‘284 and ‘320 patents through their implementation of SON systems. Traxcell followed with lawsuits against Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, which were assimilated into one lead case in 2019.

The same year, the magistrate judge entered a claim-construction order in both cases, ruling that parts of the ‘284 patent were indefinite. After this construction, leading Nokia, Sprint, and Verizon to move for summary judgments, which were granted.