Law360 reported that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas stayed 21 infringement cases that Global Equity Management Ltd. (GEMSA) had filed against major Amazon clients, and ruled that Amazon’s action in Virginia seeking a declaration of non-infringement and patent invalidity would proceed first.
According to Law360, GEMSA filed patent suits in Texas federal court in June against Ericsson, Johnson & Johnson USA, Siemens Corporation, General Electric, Uber, Netflix, Expedia, and other companies that Amazon asserts are customers that use Amazon technology related to website side menu bars.
Law360 reported that Amazon argued that its case fell squarely within the “customer exception” to the first-to-file rule and said courts routinely stay cases brought against users of software pending resolution of claims between the patentee and the producers of the software. In addition, Amazon contended that the very point of its Virginia action is to avoid duplicative litigation and GEMSA’s argument that litigating dozens of cases in Texas could “somehow be more efficient than litigating a single case in Virginia” makes no sense, the court states in its ruling.
Amazon Web Services is represented by a Fenwick team led by patent litigation partners Saina Shamilov and David Hadden and associates Ravi Ranganath and Dargaye Churnet. Expedia Inc. is also represented by a Fenwick team led by Shamilov and Hadden, with associates Ranganath, Eman Sojoodi, Phillip Haack and Jeff Ware.
The full article is available through the Law360 website (subscription required).