About six weeks ago, Fortress-funded VLSI Technology won a record $2.175 billion damages verdict against Intel in the Western District of Texas, which is by far the busiest patent court in the United States by now. That first VLSI v. Intel decision is not final; an appeal has been announced. On Monday (April 12), another case involving the same parties will go to trial in Waco, TX.
On Friday (April 9), Judge Alan Albright denied--giving it short shrift by not even stating any reasons--the following Intel motion to transfer the case from Waco to Austin (or to postpone the trial in the alternative):
21-04-07 Intel Motion to Tr... by Florian Mueller
Intel argues that it can't get a fair trial in Waco so shortly after the big news that the early-March verdict made in the local media: "juror awareness of the prior enormous verdict would be highly prejudicial to Intel."
I guess Intel knew from the beginning that Judge Albright was going to go ahead with the second VLSI v. Intel trial no matter what. But if Intel lost and appealed, then it preserved certain arguments by way of this motion.
Intel and Apple are challenging Fortress Investment's aggregation of patents in an antitrust action in the Northern District of California, where they recently brought their second amended complaint after the original complaint and the first amended complaint had been dismissed. Meanwhile, Fortress-funded entities are pursuing infringement cases against Apple and Intel in different jurisdictions.
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