Lucent Technologies Inc. v. Gateway, Inc.
Opinion
Opinion
Brewster, J.
ORDER DENYING MOTIONS BY DELL AND GATEWAY FOR SUMMARY ADJUDICATION REGARDING PRE-SUIT DAMAGES
I. INTRODUCTION
Dell and Gateway each move the Court for summary adjudication that Lucent may not recover pre-suit damages for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 4,701,954 . The parties fully briefed the issue and the Court heard the motions on Monday, January 8, 2007. For the reasons herein, the motions are DENIED.
II. BACKGROUND
Lucent sued Dell and Gateway in 2002 for patent infringement. The case was originally filed in the Eastern District of Virginia and then transferred to the Southern District of California. Microsoft filed a declaratory judgment action of non-infringement against Lucent in 2003. The eases were eventually consolidated and then the issues separated into “groups” of technologies for trial. The instant Group 3 concerns the speech coding patent U.S. Patent No. 4,701,954 (“the '954 patent”). This patent describes and claims methods related to digital speech codecs which transform speech signals into electrical pulses.
Although Lucent is not seeking pre-suit damages against Defendant Microsoft, it is seeking such damages from Dell and Gateway. At issue is when and how…