Representing a preeminent technology company in defense of a patent infringement lawsuit filed in 2012, a Milbank IP litigation team succeeded in its motion for a judgment on the pleadings, which was granted by a US District Court judge in Delaware on September 15.
In addition to Milbank’s client, the lawsuit by San Francisco-based CallWave Communications LLC targeted a number of other technology companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and BlackBerry. CallWave alleged patent infringement by Milbank’s client in connection with technologies for call processing, payment processing, and location services.
The case originally concerned eight separate patents but was eventually narrowed down to just one. Oral arguments took place in March 2016, after the lifting of a stay in the case to enable inter partes review of one of the patents asserted by CallWave.
Referencing the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice decision on the patentability of abstract ideas, District Court Judge Richard Andrews concluded in his opinion that the claims of the CallWave patent at issue “are related to an abstract idea and lack an inventive concept…[and] are therefore invalid. Plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”
The Milbank team was led by partners Mark Scarsi and Christopher Gaspar, and included special counsel Philip Chen and associates Ashlee Lin, Dat Nguyen, and Nathaniel Browand.
Further coverage of the case can be found here.
