Whitserve v Computer Packages back at district court
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit returned the WhitServe v Computer Packages (CPI) case to the US District Court for the District of Connecticut on October 17.
On August 7 the court ruled on an appeal against a jury’s finding of wilful infringement of four patents, a cross-appeal of the trial court’s denial of various post-trial motions and a separate crossappeal of a denial of sanctions and attorneys’ fees.
WhitServe, owned by Wesley Whitmyer, sued CPI for allegedly infringing four computer software program patents owned by Whitmyer. CPI assists businesses to pay their patent maintenance fees on time.
The jury found CPI had failed to prove any claims invalid, that CPI’s systems infringed the four patents, that CPI’s infringement was wilful, and that WhitServe was entitled to $8,378,145 in damages.
The trial court then denied all of WhitServe’s requested post-trial relief, including a request for a permanent injunction and enhanced damages and attorneys’ fees.
CPI appealed and WhitServe (against denial of post-trial relief)) and Whitmyer (over fees and expenses) both cross-appealed.
In the ruling in August, Judge O’Malley filed the opinion for the court: “We affirm the jury’s finding of infringement, affirm the jury’s finding of no anticipation of most, but not all, claims, and we vacate the jury’s damages award and remand for a new trial on damages. On the cross-appeal, we remand for a proper determination of the post-trial motions at issue. As to the separate cross-appeal, we affirm the denial of fees and sanctions.”
In a separate case on October 25, WhitServe filed a lawsuit against Apple at the same district court in Connecticut. The suit alleges Apple’s Quick Look feature infringes one of WhitServe’s patents.
