Category: Judge O’Connor
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Patent Infringement Litigation: Can You Keep A Case In The Eastern District of Texas?
In the old days, once you rounded up patent infringers, you could (in nearly all cases) file a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas without much fear that it would be transferred out of the District. After all, cases filed in the Eastern District of Texas were “not being consigned to the wastelands of…
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Judge O’Connor Issues Important Patent Opinion in Lighting Ballast Control
On June 10, 2011, Judge O’Connor issued an opinion in Lighting Ballast Control v. Philips Electronics North America Corp. et al. (copy of opinion located here). Judge O’Connor struck the plaintiff’s damages expert’s opinion that used the entire market value theory to confirm the reasonableness of his proposed royalty rate. Judge O’Connor found that the…
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Four New Patent Cases Filed in the Northern District of Texas
In the wake of the Fifth Circuit’s en banc decision in In re Volkswagen of Am., Inc., 545 F.3d 304 (5th Cir. 2008), and the Federal Circuit’s decision in In re TS Tech USA Corp., 551 F.3d 1315 (Fed. Cir. 2008), both of which granted mandamus petitions to correct the erroneous denial of transfer motions…
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Alto-Shaam’s Patents Invalidated
In 2009, Alto-Shaam sued Cleveland Range, LLC and Convotherm Elektrogerate GmbH in the Northern District of Texas alleging infringement of US Patent Nos. 7,157,668 and 7,317,173, which claim combination smoker ovens. On February 16, 2011, Judge O’Connor invalidated the asserted claims of Alto-Shaam’s patents after conducting a rigorous analysis and finding them obvious (opinion available here).…
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Judge O’Connor Tosses False Claims Act Claim Against Northrop Grumman
On October 27, 2010, Judge O’Connor held in United States ex rel. DeKort v. Integrated Coast Guard Systems that one of the claims in Michael DeKort’s qui tam False Claims Act lawsuit against Lockheed Martin, Integrated Coast Guard Systems, and Northrop Grumman failed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction (pdf copy of decision here). The…
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Judge O’Connor
Born in Houston, Texas, Judge O’Connor was appointed to the Northern District of Texas in 2007 by President George W. Bush, after being recommended by Texas Senators Hutchinson and Cornyn. He graduated from the University of Houston, with a B.S., in 1986, and received his J.D. from South Texas College of Law in 1989, where he…