Sharp, Vizio Escape Infringement Lawsuit After Source Code Barred From Evidence
Chief Judge Leonard Stark, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)
A Delaware federal judge has released Sharp Electronics Co. and Vizio Inc. from a patent-infringement suit, finding that key evidence was not admissible in the case.
Chief Judge Leonard P. Stark of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware last week ruled that plaintiff Wi-LAN Inc. could not rely on source code for allegedly infringing parts that Sharp and Vizio had incorporated into their televisions after years of delay in bringing it forward.
In a 15-page opinion, made public on Tuesday, Stark said there were serious questions surrounding the authenticity of the source code, which formed the basis of Wi-LAN's case against the two electronics manufacturers, and granted the defendants' motion for summary judgement on non-infringement.
Wi-LAN in 2015 accused Sharp and Vizio of directly infringing its so-called '654 patent, which claims methods of displaying interlaced video data on non-interlaced monitors. According to Wi-Lan, Sharp and Vizio purchased chips containing the supposedly infringing functionality from third-party manufacturers and included it in their digital TVs.
Wi-LAN, however, did not obtain the evidence until mid-2017, when it settled a separate suit with the parts-makers. According to court documents, those firms initially said they could not produce the information but later provided Wi-LAN with just one version of the source code, along with accompanying declarations that there were "no material differences" between that version of the code and any versions used since 2009.
Wi-LAN argued that the source code was admissible under federal rules as records of a regularly conducted business activity.
But Stark cited the "highly dubious circumstances" surrounding the production. The materials, he said, were prepared for litigation, and not in the ordinary course of business, raising concerns about their trustworthiness.
Stark's ruling also denied Wi-LAN's request to fix problems with the source code just ahead of trial next month. In his opinion, Stark noted that the issue had been litigated since early 2016 and he said he had put Wi-LAN on notice as early as September 2017 that there was already "a really strong case" to deny Plaintiff another opportunity to obtain source code from third parties.
"Plaintiff has had ample time and opportunities over years of litigation to obtain evidence of infringement from the chip manufacturers," Stark wrote.
"This has now been an issue for approximately three years—and trial is now just two months away. There is simply no reason to provide plaintiff still another opportunity to fix its evidentiary deficiencies (even assuming Plaintiff could, somehow, do so)."
Kirkland & Ellis partner Gianni Cutri, who represented Sharp, praised the ruling in a statement this week, saying the issues Stark had cited were not new to the litigation.
"Wi-LAN’s assertions of infringement in this case have long suffered from serious evidentiary and substantive problems, and we are very pleased with the court’s decision confirming that our client does not infringe,” he said.
Counsel for Wi-LAN did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment on the ruling.
Wi-LAN was represented by Monte M. Bond, Jeffrey R. Bragalone, Patrick J. Conroy, Terry Saad, and James R. Perkins of Bragalone Conroy in Dallas and Brian E. Farnan and Michael J. Farnan of Farnan LLP in Wilmington.
Sharp was represented by Cutri and Joel Merkin in Kirkland's Chicago office; Michael W. De Vries in Los Angeles; Adam R. Alper and James Beard in San Francisco and Jared Barcenas in New York. Jack B. Blumenfeld and Stephen J. Kraftschik of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell acted as local counsel.
Vizio was represented by Rex Hwang, Stanley M. Gibson and Jessica Newman of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell in Los Angeles and Pilar Gabrielle Kraman of Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor in Wilmington.
The case was captioned Wi-LAN v. Sharp.
Sharp, a subsidiary of a Taiwan-based technology firm, is headquartered in Japan, with its U.S. operations based in Montvale, New Jersey. Vizio is based in Irvine, California. Wi-LAN is headquartered in Canada.
