On July 9, 2012, Judge Ferguson issued a thorough opinion (available here) conditionally (because the matter of inequitable conduct is still pending) resolving a number of issues relating to last March’s $170 million jury verdict (available here) that General Electric (“GE”) obtained against Mitsubishi for Mitsubishi’s infringement of one of GE’s patents claiming technology relating to wind turbines.
Judge Ferguson issued a number of key rulings:
1. Mitsubishi was not entitled to a judgment as a matter of law that the asserted claim was invalid, that Mitsubishi’s turbines do not infringe, or that GE was not entitled to lost profit damages.
2. The Court’s prior ruling precluding Mitsubishi from introducing evidence that the PTO had granted reexamination of the patent-in-suit was correct.
3. GE was entitled to a permanent injunction.
4. The injunction (which will issue if the Court finds that Mitsubishi has not proven that the patent-in-suit is unenforceable) would not be stayed pending the outcome of the patent-in-suit’s reexamination or an appeal of the case to the Federal Circuit.
GE is represented by Ray Guy, Anish Desai, Carmen Bremer, David Lender, and Eric Hochstadt, all of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP; and Andrew Brown, David Ball, Jr., Moses Silverman, and Nicholas Groombridge, all of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP; and formerly represented by Christopher Evans, now of Shore Chan Bragalone DePumpo LLP.
Mitsubishi is represented by Vic Henry and Lane Fletcher, both of Henry Oddo Austin & Fletcher; and Alice Loughran, Andrew Sloniewsky, Charles Cole, Emily Nestler, Filiberto Agusti, Houda Morad, Martin Schneiderman, Patricia Palacios, Seth Watkins, Shannen Coffin, Steven Barber, and Tremayne Norris, all of Steptoe & Johnson LLP; and Cortney Alexander, Gerald Ivey, Jeffrey Totten, Naoki Yoshida, Roger Taylor, Thomas Jenkins, Thomas Winland, Tyler Akagi, and Virginia Carron, all of Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP.
Charles Bleil, and Karl Bayer, of the Law Office of Karl Bayer, served as special masters in the case.