Two Billion Reasons Patent Plaintiffs Will Continue Filing in the Western District of Texas

In our October 2020 client alert, Why Is My Company Being Sued For Patent Infringement In Waco, Texas?, we discussed the growing trend of patent cases being filed in Judge Albright’s court in the Western District of Texas, Waco division. At the time of that alert, the first jury trial before Judge Albright was still under way.

That case, which ultimately ended in the jury returning a verdict for the defense, led to some speculation that jurors in Waco may not have an appetite for the large plaintiff’s verdicts sometimes rendered in the neighboring Eastern District of Texas. 

Yesterday’s verdict in VLSI Technology v. Intel—in which the jury awarded the plaintiff, VLSI, more than $2 billion—is likely to trump that initial speculation, however, and continue to fuel the trend of Waco being the hottest court for patent cases in the country.¹

VLSI, a division of Fortress, alleged that billions of microprocessor chips sold by Intel infringed two patents owned by VLSI. At the close of the six-day trial, VLSI requested a multi-billion dollar verdict from the jury. After one day of deliberation, the jury obliged, awarding $1.5 billion for literal infringement of one patent and an additional $675 million for infringement of a second patent under the doctrine of equivalents. The jury also found the two asserted patents were not proven to be invalid, and that Intel’s infringement was not willful. The total award of $2.175 billion is among the largest patent verdicts on record.

With a sampling of only two jury trials, one a defense verdict and the other one of the largest plaintiff’s verdicts to date, it is impossible to draw any trend lines for juries in patent cases in the Western District. But the knowledge that a jury in Waco was persuaded to award a 10 figure verdict will certainly encourage plaintiffs to continue bringing their patent cases to Waco.

¹ VLSI Technology LLC v Intel Corporation, 6:21-cv-00057-ADA, jury verdict dated March 2, 2021.