Hayday
Current silence (no filings) makes one wonder what is going on. What is Judge Albright doing? Everything seems to be moving - but slowly. We heard many things about how Judge Albright handles patent cases, how fast he settles the case, how knowledgeable he is about patents and how experienced he is in handling patent plaintiffs as plaintiff lawyer. Many expected settlement right after the first Markman hearing. It is not so easy dealing with big corporations. Their legal expenses are miniscule compared to the infringement amount. Having come this far (Markman hearings), without a negative setback, is a great achievement for just 2 MG patents.
We now see:
1) Judge Albright has strict schedules and tries to follow them. Only a half-day for the last Markman hearing but it took the whole day. VPLM came out successful.
2) We heard about why Judge Albright does not care about IPR's being filed during his case. He does not pause his case for IPR or IPR ruling. We get the impression that he and other judges rely on their own court's findings rather than IPR rulings. US legal system, not PTAB. The District judges have their legal jurisdiction.
3) Looks like Huawei is least prepared for a patent case like this. Huawei's market is huge in Asia, Europe, etc. Samsung and Apple sell huge no. of smart phones (Apple: 200-220 million iphones/yr).
4) AMZN went through last Markman hearing, along with TMUS and VZ under Judge Albright. Albright is quite familiar with VPLM patents, claims, claim terms, etc. He has not objected to any of them so far.
5) AMZN tries hard to transfer. It is not working so far. Their creative excuse of pointing out input technology designed by their middleware engineers in Sunnyvale, CA did not go far. What a joke!
6) A point investors need to appreciate is how big the infringements could be. Big companies will fight as hard as they can from paying out such enormous amount.
If Judge Albright rules infringement in favor of VPLM and, if the trial affirms infringements, defendants must pay VPLM. If they do not pay VPLM can file an injunction against all defendants from selling their devices and/or doing business in US. We hope they do not go that far and quickly settle.
