October 30, 2023
Willkie’s Tech Patent Litigation Group recently won a favorable trial outcome for Netflix in a high-profile patent infringement case, largely defeating claims that had sought approximately $300 million in damages.
GoTV Streaming brought the lawsuit in October 2022, accusing Netflix of infringing three patents through the rendering of Netflix’s home page. The litigation proceeded on a compressed schedule, through discovery, the filing of IPR petitions at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, dispositive motions, and to trial, all within a year. In that accelerated time frame, Willkie efficiently narrowed the case and winnowed claims in the run-up to trial, invalidating one of the three patents at the summary judgment stage, and defeating allegations of indirect infringement.
On Friday, October 20, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles) returned a verdict of non-infringement for Netflix on one of the patents-in-suit, found that Netflix had non-willfully infringed a single claim of another patent, and awarded the plaintiff $2.5 million in lump-sum damages, instead of the running royalty based on Netflix subscriptions it had sought.
The Willkie team was led by Indranil (Indy) Mukerji, the Chair of Willkie’s Tech Patent Litigation Group, and partners Steve Marshall, Aliza Carrano, Kori Bell, and Barrington Dyer played key roles throughout the case and at trial. The team also included associates Devon Edwards, Eric Saunders, Steven Ballew, Chris Moulder, Kathryn Garrett and Jason Zaccaro, and law clerk Raj Chakraborty.
