10/20/2020
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`Roku Tells WDTX Patent Jury Its Tech's Web Access Is Key - Law360
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`Roku Tells WDTX Patent Jury Its Tech's Web Access Is Key
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`By Katie Buehler
`Law360 (October 5, 2020, 6:53 PM EDT) -- Roku Inc. told a Texas federal jury Monday that during a weeklong trial,
`jurors will learn about several differences between the company's RokuTV and a streaming media technology patent it's
`accused of infringing, kicking off U.S. District Judge Alan Albright's first patent jury trial since his appointment to the
`bench in September 2018.
`
`Of those nine differences, a substantial one is that RokuTV and similar products use the internet to allow its users to
`stream and cast media, while MV3 Partners LLC's patent-in-suit calls for the products to use traditional TV signals, Roku
`attorney Alexander Hadjis of Oblon McClelland Maier & Neustadt LLP told a seven-person Western District of Texas jury.
`MV3 is accusing Roku of stealing its patented technology and profiting off it since at least 2014.
`
`"Roku pays for patents it wants to use and bring into their products," Hadjis said. "Roku doesn't want to pay for what it
`doesn't use."
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`He added that while MV3 owns the patent, it has never used it in a product or prototype, and none of Roku's competitors
`license the technology for their own products.
`
`MV3 attorney Jonathan Waldrop of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP said he predicted Hadjis would bring up that argument
`and told jurors that just because MV3 isn't currently using the patent doesn't mean Roku isn't infringing.
`
`"It's not a defense to trespass and say, 'Well, you weren't using it,'" he said.
`
`The attorneys' oral arguments Monday morning kicked off a four-times-postponed trial in front of Judge Albright that is
`expected to last until Friday. The trial had originally been scheduled to begin June 1, but was pushed back to June 29,
`then Aug. 3 or 5, then Sept. 3 or 4 and finally to Oct. 5 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than
`200,000 Americans nationwide and more than 16,000 Texans, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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`Everyone in attendance is required to wear a face mask, including attorneys sitting in the well, but not at counsel tables.
`Attorneys for MV3 and Roku wore face masks while seated at their tables, but removed them to present their openings to
`jurors. Judge Albright told attorneys, before bringing the jury in, that whether they wore masks the entire time or not
`was up to them.
`
`"I'm OK with folks at counsel table wearing masks. However, I'm OK with you not wearing them, too," he said.
`
`The seven jurors were seated one seat apart from each other, provided with their own bottle of hand sanitizer and wore
`face coverings — six wore face masks while a seventh wore just a face shield.
`
`Judge Albright addressed the jurors before starting the trial, telling them his staff had worked for weeks to figure out the
`safest way to hold the trial, including placing an air purifier by the jury box.
`
`The Western District judge's procedures varied significantly from those of U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap in the
`Eastern District of Texas. Judge Gilstrap held his second in-person COVID-19-era trial the week of Sept. 14, during
`which the attorneys in the well never wore masks and the jurors only wore face shields. Like his peer in Waco, Judge
`Gilstrap required viewers in the gallery to wear face masks.
`
`Over the next week, the jurors will hear from MV3 company representatives, satellite engineers, patent attorneys and
`the inventor himself, Waldrop told the jury. Roku plans to present its senior vice president, a principal engineer and an
`electric engineer.
`
`Roku had originally challenged the validity of MV3's patent, but told Judge Albright on Thursday it was dropping that
`defense.
`
`The patent-in-suit is U.S. Patent No. 8,863,223.
`
`MV3 is represented by Jonathan K. Waldrop, Darcy L. Jones, Marcus A. Barber, John W. Downing, Heather S. Kim, Jack
`Shaw, ThucMinh Nguyen and Paul G. Williams of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, J. Mark Mann, G. Black Thompson and
`Andy Tindel of Mann Tindel & Thompson and Craig D. Cherry of Haley & Olson PC.
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`https://www.law360.com/articles/1302893/print?section=ip
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`BBiTV EX2012
`AT&T v. Broadband iTV
`IPR2021-00556
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`10/20/2020
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`Roku Tells WDTX Patent Jury Its Tech's Web Access Is Key - Law360
`Roku is represented by Alexander J. Hadjis, Lisa M. Mandrusiak, W. Todd Baker, Christopher Ricciuti and Frank West of
`Oblon McClelland Maier & Neustadt LLP, Richard D. Milvenan of McGinnis Lochridge LLP, Dan L. Bagatell of Perkins Coie
`LLP and David. N. Deaconson of Pakis Giotes Page & Burleson PC.
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`The case is MV3 Partners LLC v. Roku Inc., case number 6:18-cv-00308, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District
`of Texas.
`
`--Additional reporting by Daniel Siegal, Ryan Davis and Dani Kass. Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
`
`Update: This story has been updated to include more details about Judge Albright's patent trial record.
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`Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Roku's attorney. The error has been corrected.
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